28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The sky is not less blue because the blind man cannot see it." Danish Proverb, July 5, 2010
Virgil Cole and Everett Hatch return to Appalossa where they had enforced the law in the past.
Currently, the town is run by Amos Callico, an ambitious, corrurpt, chief of police, and his twelve lawmen.
Callico is always looking for personal gain and his manner of providing justice is to demand kick backs from the businessmen and local residents.
Virgil and Everett are hired to provide personal security by Lamar Spec, at his saloon, The Boston House. When they do, Callico approaches them and complains that they are taking money that belongs to him. When that doesn't work, he asks if they would join him. He's rebuffed and soon, the two men are providing an honest brand of security for all of the saloons in town.
One day, their friend Pony Flores and his half brother, Kha-to-nay arrive. Pony tells them that his half brother has just killed a corrupt Indian Agent and robbed a bank. The government is after him for the first offense and the Pinkertons for the other.
Parker is a master story teller. As I breezed through the pages I kept thinking of Gary Cooper in "High Noon" and was humming the theme song from the movie.
Parker's visual descriptions and entertaining characters make the reader want the story to go on and on.
I really enjoyed the book and felt as if I was sitting at a ring-side seat as the realistic action was unfolding before me.
Robert Parker passed away recently and all of literature will be sorry that he's not still with us, providing entertaining stories and believable characters who we'd like to emulate.
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66 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Into the sunset Mr. Parker..., May 4, 2010
A conversation between my ego and my id about this book:
Rubicon: "... you like this book"?
Jason: "I did".
Rubicon: "What about it you like"? A lone tumbleweed passes between us as we sit in front of a worn down, empty saloon.
Jason: "When Virgil kills a man he don't make a speech. Or brag. He don't say much. Gotta `spect a man for that."
Rubicon: "You don't say much. Why"?
Jason: "S'pose, don't have much to say".
Rubicon: "Think the world will miss Robert B. Parker"? Jason thinks about this for a long while. So long in fact that I almost forgot I asked the question.
Jason: "Reckon they better". I wait because years have honed me to his tone, his inflections. He wasn't yet done.
Jason: "Too many writers now-a-days. Too many people with free time and a pen. Too many damn words that don't tell anything". (Another pause as he looks across the dusty, empty street). "Parker could speak more in one sentence that most folks could write in an entire book".
I keep silent. That's the most I done heard Jason talk, at one time mind you, in the seventeen years that I've known him. Once he sighs I know I can continue.
He does.
I do.
Rubicon: "Think they'll be another like him"?
Jason: "Reckon not".
Rubicon: "Wanna' visit the hoar house"?
Jason: "Reckon so". He smiles. I grin.
No, this wasn't your ordinary review because Mr. Parker wasn't your ordinary writer. Parker wasn't just a guy with stories to tell. Stories that needed to be told, sought out Mr. Parker to tell them. And the magic of his storytelling was that he didn't need a lot of words to do it. His brevity of words carries the power of a sawed-off shotgun. Our boys, Hitch and Cole, are back; and they are still as deadly and lethargic as ever. They are an impossible blend of Billy the Kid, Buddha, and Niche. `Blue-Eyed Devil' is a brilliant continuation of `Appaloosa', `Resolution', and `Brimstone'. It was also nice to see a number of characters make cameos to help Hitch and Cole raise a little hell. OK, a LOT of hell.
This is a series where you definitely want to start with the first one because... well... Hitch and Cole are such powerful characters that you need to start off with the beer version before you start pulling shots of corn liquor. Sunset, saddle, and sage. Tipping my hat to you Mr. Parker...
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A last blaze of glory, May 11, 2010
Some of you may not understand the title but having been a Robert Parker fan all of his publishing days and seriously in love with strong, silent men like Virgil and Everett my heart aches for the passing of a master. This was a good bye novel and you should read the earlier Virgil and Everett novels to pick up the pace and taste of their laid back, calm acceptance of the violence of the world and the cure of it. These men function in a time and place where violence is the cause and cure of many problems. Reading this book was a trip back in time and bittersweet because I know there would be no more. There is no one writing of the caliber of Robert Parker.
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