Appaloosa

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: Titus Welliver

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

When it comes to writing, Robert B. Parker knows no boundaries. From the iconic Spenser detective series and the novels featuring Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone, to the groundbreaking historical novel Double Play, Parker's imagination has taken readers from Boston to Brooklyn and back again. In Appaloosa, fans are taken on another trip, to the untamed territories of the West during the 1800s.

When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has so little regard for the law that he has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshal and one of his deputies for dead. Cole and Hitch, itinerant lawmen, are used to cleaning up after opportunistic thieves, but in Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary, one who raises the stakes by playing not with the rules, but with emotions.

This is Robert B. Parker at his storytelling best.

©2005 Robert B. Parker (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Like the Spenser books, it’s a study of Parker’s enduring themes: buddy relationships, the weight that honor and responsibility put on a man, the consequences of violence, the way good can shade into bad and vice versa…a melancholy and sometimes moving tale of a lost but fascinating era.” (The Seattle Times)

“Dryly amusing…a conclusion that had to make Parker smile as much as his readers will.” (Los Angles Times)

“[Parker] takes total command of the genre, telling a galloping tale…[a] classic western… magnificent. As always, the writing is bone clean. One of Parker’s finest.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Think "Western Noir"

Any additional comments?

Tightly written. Fast paced. Interesting characters. You will immediately go buy the 3 other westerns in this series that Robert Parker wrote himself - if for no other reason than Titus Welliver's narration. He makes it real. You can see the landscape, the town, the people. You can smell the gun smoke after all the shooting is done - and there are a lot of gunfights.

Listen to these novels - don't read them. You will be glad you did.

Fine western adventure

Titus Welliver delivers a fine performance. Well written characters. Exciting story, with a series of surprising plot twists. Very good, while being completely different than a Spenser novel. I recommend for any listeners who enjoy hard boiled noir story with unusual setting.

great western book.

loved it !! all was great,the story, the characters, . and esp the narrator!!!

cant wait to listen too it again!!!

Interesting Western

Wasn't sure it would be something I would like.... But it was good. Narration Excellent!!!!

A Good Western

I never read or listened to any Robert Parker books that didn't have Spencer in them. He can sure write a good western. It was one of his best books that I had experienced so far. If you like a good western, you will love this book.

Tough characters, tough talk, tough country

An engrossing (if rather short) story, with gritty non-nonsense characters and some clever dialogue. Mercifully free of the usual Western cliches and central-casting characters, the two lead figures are interesting and well described. A longer book would have allowed more development of their characters and the supporting cast, but its still satisfying. I'll definitely look for more like this.

classic western

First time author, one of the ways I find books is when I see a movie I like, theater or TV, I look to see who wrote the novel then i check audible to see what they have written, how they are rated, and if I feel I would like to listen to a book by the author. This is one of those. Robert B Parker is best known for the detective series Spenser, which was made into a TV series called Spenser for Hire, which I don't believe I ever saw. Further Parker wrote the Jesse Stone detective novels which were made into TV movies, which I did see and like and made me check out his books. He wrote a third series which was a classic western series called Hitch and Cole. This book was nothing but a classic western tale. It had everything, good guys, bad guys, a woman, some Kiowa's and set in a town called Appaloosa, which lies somewhere in the plains between the Mississippi River and Denver. This was a fairly short book and an easy read. If you like classic westerns that are entertaining, then you'll like this one.

Men with rules

This story was constantly moving & engaging the listener/reader. The characters were real, all with their own set of moral standards which were often in opposition with each other. Do not miss this book.

What?????

I've read and listen to hundreds of books, and whether they are entertaining, so-so or boring I can't remember any not having a definite theme and plot, even if a poor one--the "plot" being the literal step by step action in a story leading the reader/listener to some conclusion --- the "theme" the moral of the story, what the reader should take away as the main idea.

It's hard to say, but I would say the plot was the hiring of a Marshal and his Deputy to clean up the town ran by the bully who killed the previous Marshal and Deputy. The Marshal falling for a lady (but very little dialog between them) who wanted to be with the top man of the town (the Marshall until someone better came along). That was it!

They rode up in the hills and watched the Appaloosa stallion with his mares (thus the name of the "story"?), but didn't say why, never tied it into anything. I can guess, by the dialog of the Marshal and his Deputy and later when they took the lady with them that it was to drive home a point that a stallion (depicting men) had to be constantly vigilant to keep his mares together and fight other stallions to keep them, the top stallion would get the mares (depicting her). But I'm just guessing, they gave no reason for watching the wild horses.

There was no step by step action that led to a conclusion, no moral of the story that I could see. I listened to the end, and came away with NOTHING!

Titus Welliver has a good reading voice, but there was too many "he said", "she said". It was probably written that way in the book, because when he did talk for the different characters he did well.

Not for kids

Any additional comments?

I downloaded this audible book for my kids to listen to. There was a rape scene in the first 5 minutes. Awkward.