Brimstone (Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch Series #3)

by Robert B. Parker

Overview

Cole and Hitch are back in a new Western classic...

The guns-for-hire introduced in Robert B. Parker's Appaloosa are back...

When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch track down the woman who stole Virgil's heart, they find a dispirited prostitute rather than the innocent beauty she once was. Now they must save her, even if murder is the price of redemption.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101050491
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/05/2009
Series:	Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch Series , #3
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	58,218
File size:	573 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert B. Parker was the author of more than fifty books. He died in January 2010.

Date of Birth:

September 17, 1932

Date of Death:

January 18, 2010

Place of Birth:

Springfield, Massachusetts

Place of Death:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Education:

B.A. in English, Colby College, 1954; M.A., Ph. D. in English, Boston University, 1957, 1971

Website:

http://robertbparker.net/

Editorial Reviews

Parker's gunslinging saddle pals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch return for their third adventure, in which the two lawmen-for-hire exchange snappy dialogue and hot lead with assorted owlhoots, deadbeats and unwashed baddies in south Texas. Here, Virgil and Everett rescue Allie French, Virgil's former sweetie who ran off to become a prostitute, and head to Brimstone, where the two gunmen sign on as deputy sheriffs. Brimstone, however, doesn't exactly provide a quiet respite for this trio. Virgil and Allie have a hard time getting over his hurt and her shame, a mysterious Indian is killing local folks and leaving taunting messages, and brutal saloon owner Pike and corrupt preacher Brother Percival are headed for a showdown. Virgil and Everett settle on a tricky solution that involves a talented tracker, a bribe, a double-cross, a noxious cloud of gun smoke and a pile of perforated bodies. The result is classic Parker-exciting, suspenseful, fast-moving and entertaining. (May)

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Publishers Weekly

Freelance gunslingers Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch (Resolution, 2008, etc.) ride into yet another town and treat it to another baptism of fire. Though he hasn't seen Allie French for a year, Virgil has never given up hope of finding her again. Riding south with sidekick and amanuensis Everett, he catches up with her in Placido, Texas. Virgil and Everett spirit her off in jig time, but the magic doesn't return so easily. Everett can spot the problem with Virgil right off: "With Allie he was different. I didn't like different." Clearly it'll take something special to rekindle the flame-something like the job Virgil and Everett are offered as deputy sheriffs in nearby Brimstone, "an actual town" that's more than just a collection of gamblers, drunks and whores. Val Verde County sheriff Dave Morrissey is concerned by the growing tension between Pike, a gang leader who's opened a perfectly law-abiding saloon, and Brother Percival, a firebrand revivalist determined to close down every watering hole in Brimstone. With each saloon Brother Percival shutters, his mission sets him more clearly on a collision course with Pike. The episodic plot prescribes some preliminary skirmishes: the kidnapping of a slain rancher's wife and daughter by a Comanche brave with a grudge against Pike; their rescue by Virgil and Everett and a half-breed tracker they've hooked up with; and their traumatic difficulties readjusting to life in Brimstone. But there's never any doubt that all this is heading to a climactic showdown between Pike and Brother Percival, followed by a post-climactic showdown between Virgil and his friends and the sole survivor, according to the iron rule that governed Virgil's first twoadventures: "Let the vermin fight to the death and then pick off the winner."No surprises, but provides some excellent evidence for anyone who wants to argue that Spenser's creator has been writing nothing but westerns for 35 years.

Kirkus Reviews

With wayward Allie French along, Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole head to Brimstone, a town where trouble's brewing between a preacher and a saloon owner. The tough edge in Titus Welliver's voice serves him well, giving believability to his first-person narrative as Everett. Parker's sparse writing is deceptive, turning out more dense and modern than listeners would expect, but it seems real coming from Welliver. The situation Everett and Virgil face is an old-fashioned Western showdown, but talk of sexual assaults and bordellos plays a major part in the novel. Fans of Parker's writing and of Westerns will be pleased by his latest expedition into the fictional West. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

JULY 2009 - AudioFile