Blue-Eyed Devil

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: Titus Welliver

Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

"Law enforcement in Appaloosa had once been Virgil Cole and me. Now there was a chief of police and 12 policemen. Our third day back in town, the chief invited us to the office for a talk."

The new chief is Amos Callico, a tall, fat man in a derby hat, wearing a star on his vest and a big pearl-handled Colt inside his coat. An ambitious man with his eye on the governorship - and perhaps the presidency - he wants Cole and Hitch on his side. But they can't be bought, which upsets him mightily.

When Callico begins shaking down local merchants for protection money, those who don't want to play along seek the help of Cole and Hitch. When Cole is forced to fire on the trigger-happy son of politically connected landowner General Horatio Laird, Callico sees his dream begin to crumble. The guns for hire are thorns in the side of the power-hungry chief, and he'll use any excuse to take them out. There will be a showdown - but who'll be left standing?

©2010 Robert B. Parker (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"Cole and Hitch are smart and resourceful, and there's trickery, gunplay, and throat-cutting until only a few folks are left standing. Lean, fast, and full of snappy dialogue, it's everything a series fan would expect." ( Publishers Weekly)

Next great series

Love it good story. Great characters. It would make a good t.v. Series like deadwood.

Classic Parker!

Lean, succinct story of two cowboys, Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole, with unquestionable ethics and unshakable loyalties to themselves and each other. Beautifully done, well read.

The Quick and the good

Blue-eyed Devil is the shortest of Parker's Westerns. It goes over familiar territory, people with shady pasts, witty dialogue, etc. I've read or listened to all Parker's westerns-- and I don't like westerns.

The end of the series

This is not up to the books that came before it. It's well written, and not bad, but Parker seemed to be running out of things to say. Earlier books were about Cole figuring out who he was, and what his relationship with Allie was, and here that seems to be largely settled. What remains is a standard problem for Cole and Hitch: large numbers of men dominating a town, and, in this case, another group attacking a town, and Cole and Hitch need to deal with them, with the help of a few other professsionals. You look for interesting details to spice it up, and there are a few, but it has a fourth-book-in-the-contract feel. The style isn't as taut as in Appaloosa.

I read two or three of the non-Parker followups when they came out, and my impression was that they had no real reason to exist. One good thing about libraries is that you can determine things like that painlessly.
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Titus Welliver is excellent, as always.

Way too short for a credit

Too short for $10 credit but it’s part of the series. It was good for 4hrs

Great 👍 Western!

Great 👍 Western! Robert B Parker is/was one of the best writer of westerns of all time, right up there with Louis L'Amour! The follow-up books after his death are 99% as good.

Short but good

Good little Novella in the series. The author is brief and doesn’t use 10 pages to describe the scene. You can tell it’s a book from a different era of writing, most likely a cozy travel book. I really enjoyed the story and the characters. 

Great story!

A story about right and wrong and how they change depending on circumstances. Interesting read.

The perfect voice for this story

What did you love best about Blue-Eyed Devil?

I will read (and on Audible, listen to) anything written by Robert B. Parker. Whether the hero is Spenser or Sunny Randle or Virgil Cole really doesn't matter. And the plot doesn't really matter that much either. What matters is the terrific dialogue. I just love to

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blue-Eyed Devil?

When Laurel leaves with Pony

Which scene was your favorite?

The Indian attack on Appaloosa

If you could rename Blue-Eyed Devil, what would you call it?

Not sure, but

I Could Ride into the Sunset with this Series.

This is the final book of the Series. I have listened to them all twice. I Love, let me be clear, LOVE Titus Welliver's performance. I am a light weight when it comes to graphic violence and exploited misery. I think that is one thing I like so much about this series. It seems so realistic without a sense of tragedy or more importantly judgements. The story revolves around "higher Morality", integrity, and being true to ones self and times. It is not about all the shooting. I like this aspect of Robert B Parker's book as a whole. It is a stretch to compare them to the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but the theme that hooks me is the same. A hero, heroine, who have their personal sense of integrity and truth based on a sense of intrinsic justice. I find it to be heroic to be able to adhere to their true nature regardless of social or religious standards. I might ad sociopaths and psychopaths probably are adhering to their inner truth, but his characters are not "sick".

I love the stories, direct, simple and rewarding. These are my favorite books to listen to when I am going to sleep. precisely because of Titus Welliver's voice and the lack of assaults on my emotional/nervous system. IF you like long drawn out complicated multi-plots with a lot of characters and suspense this might not be your cup of tea.

Truthfully, I wish this series could have gone on as long the Spencer series. I am sad that Robert Parker is no longer with us.