Appaloosa

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: Titus Welliver

A richly imagined novel of the Old West, as spare and vivid as a high plains sunset, from one of the world's most talented performers.

It was a long time ago, now, and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well as I remember anything the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot. Time slowed down for him. Always steady, and never fast . . .

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

Praise for Appaloosa

“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)

“For…readers with a hankering for the Wild West, including a high-noon shootout and all the accoutrements.”—USA Today

“Beneath the trappings of this gunfighter novel, Parker really has something to say about the nature of men and women in the Old West. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal

“As always, [Parker] is a master…his plot gallops to a perfect, almost mythical ending. Like a great gunfighter, Parker makes it look easy.”—St. Petersburg Times

“If Spenser and Hawk had been around when the West was wild, they’d have talked like Cole and Hitch. Wonderful stuff: notch 51 for Parker.”—Kirkus Reviews

All around great story. Even better narration

There’s no one like Titus Welliver when it comes to spot on and totally engrossing narration. Admittedly, with a Robert B.Parker story he’s got a lot to work with. Wish it were twice as long but the fact is, Parker gets everything done in half the time it takes most good authors. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

Parker's best

I've read Robert B. Parker since the beginning, when people in Boston regarded him as a local writer. (From the very beginning, as it turned out, since I finally realized that he was the same Robert Parker who'd written the Sports Illustrated book on weight training.) I liked his early books a lot, and some of them, such as Mortal Stakes and Looking for Rachel Wallace, had that quality I think Parker himself mentioned -- they were like The Magnificent Seven, not so much stories as songs that you played over and over.

But truthfully, the writing was on the wall very early on, with The Judas Goat. A lot of things started to go wrong. Yes, Susan Silverman, of course --all that smug domestic banter, and the neuroticism with which the relationship was imagined. More than that, though; the writing got self-consciously spare and there was a streak of mawkishness. It got to the point where I'd read Parker if I came across him in the library, whatever series it was, but it felt like a duty. It was like the difference between The Hustler and the slackness of The Color of Money.

Appaloosa was the real deal, though. Here Parker wasn't making things comfortable for a mass audience. His characters are as they are, and you aren't meant to feel completely easy about them. For example, we see Cole beat up an innocent bystander because someone else has provoked him, and Hitch tells us it's not the first time.

The dialog and the situations ring true. It's a tough life, especially for women, and Hitch and Cole are pragmatic and to the point, as is Parker's writing throughout. Parker doesn't waste a word.

Cole's love interest, which is probably not exactly the right term, is Allie French, who's straight up mad, bad, and dangerous to know. It's a survival trait in tough circumstances. Cole feels bound to her, and that could grow into the kind of unhealthy obsession you see in Parker's other series, but in this novel the relationship isn't sentimentalized. The central metaphor is an Appaloosa that Cole and Hitch look at sometimes, a wild stallion watching over a herd of mares. Hitch's observation about where Cole fits into that picture is funny and right.

There is a plausibility issue at one point, though it's pretty forgiveable. You don't give somebody a gun in a dark saloon and tell them you'll come back to kill them if they don't come outside to face you in the daylight. The sensible response would be to let you come back in and shoot you before your eyes adjusted. But it's a good scene, so no compliants.

The narration by Titus Wellever absolutely nails it.

Deeep plot.

It's been awhile since I've read a Western and I guess there's not always that much too them. This one was mediocre in my mind. The cowboy dialogue was funny and I like the way it was written in the first person (which worked well for the narrator). My main complaint was that the plot was pretty light and there weren't alot of details to supplement that fact.

well told, but classic western schlock.

The ok corral meets Liberty Valance at high noon, with some Paladin thrown in for good measure.

Western written wonderfully!!!!

What made the experience of listening to Appaloosa the most enjoyable?

The description of the west and the wonderful characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The story made you feel like you were there.

What about Titus Welliver’s performance did you like?

He sounded like a true westerner in the old west.

If you could take any character from Appaloosa out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Everett.

Any additional comments?

I never thought I would like a listening to a western novel. But this one and ones in this series have changed my mind.