Audiobook: I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the summer while mowing the lawn which takes about 4-5 hours and given the substantial rain we have had Audiobook: I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the summer while mowing the lawn which takes about 4-5 hours and given the substantial rain we have had this summer, it’s at least once a week. It’s nice to have something entertaining while negotiating trees and hills.
This series has been wonderfully engaging. Third in the series featuring Cole and Hitch. They have found Allie, Virgil’s former lover who had run away following the abortive affair in Appaloosa. She was in Brimstone working as a whore. They rescue her from the situation and Virgil and Hitch take jobs in Brimstone as deputy sheriffs while Virgil and Allie try to get back on track. She has found religion under the suspect tutelage of Parnell who seems to be in league with Pike, a local saloon owner who is being tracked by a large Indian. Virgil and Hitch have their hands full.
The series has been continued following Parker’s death by Robert Knott. I am reluctant to try them as I suspect capturing Parker’s unique style in this western series will be very difficult. The audio version, read by Rex Linn, which I sampled, doesn’t come close to Titus Welliver’s narration in the three original works by Parker. The narrator is very important in any audiobook and Welliver does a wonderful job with Parker’s unique cadence that’s so apparent in both the western and Jesse Stone series.
If you like Jesse Stone, I’m sure you’ll like Cole and Hitch. ...more
Audiobook: Excellent western following Appaloosa in the Hitch/Cole series. I especially love the cadence of Parker’s writing that is very similar to hAudiobook: Excellent western following Appaloosa in the Hitch/Cole series. I especially love the cadence of Parker’s writing that is very similar to his Jesse Stone series, one of my Stone’s favorites. Hitch, who resembles Stone in many ways, has arrived at the town of Resolution where he takes the job of ‘lookout’ in a saloon/whorehouse. He establishes his credentials very soon by killing the local gunfighter and then, to his employer’s consternation begins defending the local whores from brutes, several of whom are “important” people.
It gets complicated when the saloon’s owner, who also owns the general store, begins to close out on some homesteaders whose debts have become intolerable. He wants their land. And then the local mine owner hires two gunslingers and *he* wants the saloon.
Hitch and Cole are not your average gunslingers. Hitch a graduate of West Point and Cole occasionally talks about John Locke. “The law is a contract between government and the people, so when we was the law in Appaloosa were we the government or the people?” asks Cole of Hitch. Good question. The issue arises once again in Resolution.
Fans of the TV Series “Justified” (I am) will recognize all of the plots in this set of short stories tied together only by Raylan’s presence: the nurFans of the TV Series “Justified” (I am) will recognize all of the plots in this set of short stories tied together only by Raylan’s presence: the nurse selling kidneys, the coal mining VP trying to get contracts signed, etc. (He barely figures in the story about the poker-playing girl.) I regret Leonard won’t be able to write any more, but regretfully this is not one of his better works. Ironically, the TV series holds together better as a novel, especially in its portrayal of the coal-mining areas of Kentucky. This book might have been marketed as a series of short stories.
I don’t know, but have a suspicion that this book was written after, or perhaps simultaneously, with the scripts for the TV series 2nd season as a way to capitalize on the fame of the TV series. No matter, it’s a wonderful modern-day western replete with bad guys and quick-draws. In real life, Raylan would have drowned in paperwork writing up his extravagant use of bullets....more
This is an example of stumbling across an author in an entirely different setting, checking her out, and for purely non-literary reasons picking up onThis is an example of stumbling across an author in an entirely different setting, checking her out, and for purely non-literary reasons picking up one of her books.
I’m glad I did, for this book was a charming read. It’s about a young married couple of gunslingers (certainly a unique premise) that had been mentored by a famous lawman and who now offered their services - to the good guys. The relationship between Mick and Casey is marvelous.
I think she was seventeen. She wouldn’t tell me her birthday, but she’d said she was sixteen a year ago, when we’d met. And she looked younger, even with all the gear she wore: a little hazel-eyed girl with a dark braid, wearing two silver pistols on a big silver gunbelt, and a big hat and spurs. Me, I was twenty, and looked maybe a little older, which was fortunate because nobody wanted to hire a pair of kids as gunslingers. And no outlaw was ready to respect a kid as a bounty hunter. At least not until Casey had put a couple of holes in his hat. She was good at that. A regular sharpshooter. . . .Case and me do things kind of backwards sometimes. First we got married, then we introduced ourselves, then we commenced to fighting, then we had the honeymoon, and now we’re courting.
They have been hired to accompany a young woman on a journey as her protectors (of her body and the large collection of toys she has.) Needless to say numerous adventures result and Mick and Casey are left holding the bag, so to speak. I won’t recount the plot as I’d have to stamp “spoiler” all over this note.
Chinese lady came in with some lemonade and some little walnut tarts, which I was glad of because breakfast had been thin. They were spiced and sweet and gooey, and I could fit two in my mouth at one time, although I didn’t because then Casey would try it and then I’d have to fit three in, and then Montel would call us unprofessional. Which shows how little he knew about gunmen.
Many moons ago, I went through my western phase and read every drugstore western I could lay my hands on. Some were better than others but after a whiMany moons ago, I went through my western phase and read every drugstore western I could lay my hands on. Some were better than others but after a while they all blended together and I moved on to other things.
Having read an earlier Page Murdock and enjoyed it (sad to say I had to check on Goodreads to see what Estleman I had read only to discover I had previously read City of Widows and totally forgotten,) I did not hesitate to add it to the stack next to my reading chair when I was messing around in my library. It’s quite good, a real page-turner.
It’s not so much the story, which is rather ordinary, if not mythic, by western standards: the deputy sent out to track down a bunch of bad guys, but Estleman’s use of language to create dialogue and scenery that just sparkles with realism.
Louis L’Amour was always lauded as the master of western authenticity, but his books always seemed just a little too televisionish. I’m sure he got the guns and saddles right; less so the people. Estleman feels more authentic. His scenes have a bitterness, a harsh realism, and much less glorification than L’Amour.
Murdock is sent by Judge Blackthorne into Canada to help round up and extradite Bliss and Whitelaw, two particularly vicious outlaws who are marauding through the Canadian wilderness killing miners and destroying settlements you know, the usual rape and mayhem.
The date is never specifically mentioned although Murdock says at one point it’s been sixteen years since he was at the Battle of Stone’s River which would make it around 1879, but later he implies a twenty year span so it’s unclear. He also mentions a settlement of former slaves called Shulamite. From what I’ve been able to find, the first settlement in Saskatchewan of former black slaves was in 1910 from Oklahoma, so I would be skeptical of much of the historicity of the Murdock novels, something I find irritating, but once that realization is accepted, the books can still be enjoyed for their plot and writing.
Think Donovan Creed without the trappings and set in the mid-19th century old west and you have Emmett Love. He’s embarked on a trip to ferry a mail-oThink Donovan Creed without the trappings and set in the mid-19th century old west and you have Emmett Love. He’s embarked on a trip to ferry a mail-order bride and some hookers through wild country. He has a side-kick Shrub/Wayne who rarely shows himself but is always just a little ahead of the game. The book can be both poignant and hilarious. Another Locke winner.
Phoebe, the mail-order bride, encounters Emmet in the beginning. She’s from the East and on her way to join a prospective husband. Standoffish and arrogant, she adapts to the harshness of the journey, but maintains her optimism despite Emmet’s attempts to present a more likely scenario, a sod house instead of the fine wood one with porch she envisions. "Well, we'll see when we get there. I hope he's got a fine wood house, 'cause sod houses are fiercely cold in the winter, and scorchin' hot in the summer. And they leak like crazy whenever it rains, which ain't often enough. But when it does rain, it won't stop. As the water comes through the sod, it turns the dirt into mud, at which point you and your husband and kids'll be wearin' half the house on your faces and clothes.”
The portrayal of the Kansas prairie is harsh indeed. After Scarlett is gored by a bull, Emmet, Rose, Monique, and Phoebe attempt to carry her injured body to the nearest homestead where Molly and Paul Stone try to eke out a desperate living and they hope to find some shelter. Unfortunately she dies on the way and then it’s a matter of finding tools to dig a grave in the hard-packed clay. The few that they had were broken so they seek a hole to stuff her body, “Gettin' Scarlett's body deep enough into the hole to properly bury her required doin' things to it that'll keep me out of heaven for six lifetimes. I could only hope the good Lord would accept part of the blame for creatin' such a large woman and allowin' her to die near such a small hole. I'm not the sort to criticize, but it seemed like bad plannin' to me, and I might've yelled that comment skyward, or worse ones.”
And this after they had come across the grave of a child. Phoebe asks how the child might have died. "Cholera, typhoid, brain fever, and uncontrollable diarrhea are possible. But if I had to make a guess, I'd say this child fell out of a wagon and got crushed by either the ox or the wheel of the wagon that followed it. She stared at me. "That cannot be a common way to die on the prairie.""I'm afraid it's quite common," I said. She grimaced, closed her eyes tightly, and shook her head. "And not one of the diseases you"mentioned?" "No ma'am."She opened her eyes. "Why not?" I gestured to the open area all around us. No other graves." ...more
**spoiler alert** An early Willeford that was originally published in 1971 under the title Hombre from Sonora then reissued under this title**spoiler alert** An early Willeford that was originally published in 1971 under the title Hombre from Sonora then reissued under this title which was Willeford's original preference. Difference, according to the Dictionary of American Slang, cited on the dust jacket, is defined as "the advantage or that which gives an advantage to an opponent, as a gun or a club.
Johnny Shaw is being chased by Preston "Dad" Reardon, who had been a friend of Johnny's father, because Johnny had killed Dad's son Onyx. Johnny's father had died leaving him a valley ranch, one that had been grazed under the loose rules of the west which didn't believe in filing deeds. Johnny's dad thought otherwise, filed his deed, and left the ranch to Johnny in his will. Onyx wanted the ranch and came to claim it, offering a better than value price. When Johnny refused, Onyz started shooting his chickens and goats, so Johnny "shot him out of the saddle. Being only gut-shot, Onyx is writing on the ground with his guts falling out. Not wanting his friend to suffer, Johnny shot him in the back of the head and hauled him off to town and the sheriff (who owes his job to Dad Reardon, as to most of the other ranchers and cowbiys. The sheriff advises flight, even though, one could argue, he is innocent of murder. At least that's Johnny's first story.
Johnny seeks shelter from Jack Dover, the town blacksmith, of a neighboring community who hides him. We learn of these events from Johnny who tells his side of the story to Jennie, Jack's daughter. (Can't have a western without a daughter, right?) Then wanted posters appear as well as additional evidence, and Johnny's story has to change. Onyx was shot in the back -- of the head first, then in the belly.
The ostensible truths quickly become much less apparent as Dover tells Johnny about Johnny's father, a colonel in a southern regiment who had left the field of battle, made his way to Vera Cruz, and made a life for himself back in the west after the war. Dover had been a sergeant in his regiment, but learned a two things about men during hard fighting during the war: "First, men are more like sheep than gods"they always huddle together even when spreading out is more advantageous; and secondly, the "only men to win the war are the ones who are still alive when it's all over. . . and a man is more important to himself than any cause can possibly be." And then we learn Dover is not just a town blacksmith.
The book reminds me of some of the finer examples of "noir"," especially Jim Thompson. Johnny, an unlikeable little sociopath, treats those who are kind to him with nothing but suspicion and repays kindness with ugliness, attributing base motives where none may have existed. Of course, being in the first person we see the world only through his eyes....more
So I was poking around and reading some reviews when Ed Gorman's name popped up. He was getting uniformly good reviews of both his westerns and mysterSo I was poking around and reading some reviews when Ed Gorman's name popped up. He was getting uniformly good reviews of both his westerns and mysteries, so I downloaded a couple to my Kindle.
I read a lot of westerns decades ago, going through a phase. Max Brand, Louis' L'Amour, others whose names I can't remember; they all defined the genre. The story lines were basically the same, the scenery similar, and the good guys (oh they might have some minor flaw to provide a semblance of introspection) always shoot straighter and faster. Gorman breaks out of this mold.
Leo Guild is trying to make a living as a bounty hunter. He's just turned 54, the prostitute he's hired as a birthday gift to himself doesn't want to do it, and the guy he's subcontracted to do some bodyguard work, so he could take the day off, has just been killed. He is haunted by his accidental killing of a young girl.
Father Healey is not a priest. An ex-conman wanted by authorities in Chicago for murder, he wormed his way into the good graces of Kriker's "settlement," a collection of sod houses that has grown oveer the years into a small community of outcasts. Gradually he has come to be accepted by them as a priest as he acts the part.
Kriker is an old mountain man, amoral, but haunted by a young girl, the only survbivor of one of his raids on a wagon train where he and his men had killed everyone except this little girl, including her parents. She has been mute ever since. Now she is dying of cholera, and Kriker is desperately trying to save her life using the traditional methods of "granny" an old indian woman. He won't permit any doctors as one failed to save his wife and child. But feeding the hearts of rattlesnake and little birds in boiled milk isn't helping either.
Two deputies, Thomas and James Bruckner, are conspiring to retrieve money Kriker had stolen from a bank. Guild realizes the two were the killers of the two bodyguards whom he feels responsible for. James is defined by his scarred face, badly burned as a child from when his brother, Thomas, poured kerosene all over him and then tossed in a lit match. James has since followed his brother around, constantly cowed in his presence, and Thomas is just plain evil.
The descriptions of Guild and James trekking through a blizzard to get the money in order to ransom Kriker's girl is so realistically portrayed I wished I had read it in July under a baking sun. There are some marvelous evocative descriptions.
I saw glimmers of the hope coupled with despair present in Cages, one of Gorman's truly depressing novellas. This is really a very good book that transcends the shallow boundaries of the genre. ...more
Decades ago, I went through a western phase. Max Brand, Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Owen Wister (I once lived in the Wister house in Germantown, PA, andDecades ago, I went through a western phase. Max Brand, Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Owen Wister (I once lived in the Wister house in Germantown, PA, and I still think The Virginian is one of the great western novels along with Shane by Jack Schaeffer,); all could be counted on for a reliable and consistent story with good (always slightly flawed) triumphing over evil. Then came writers like Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, a classic that, with prequel and sequel, raised violence and ambiguity to an art. Robert B. Parker is now writing a series that's equally fine.
Robert Parker is author of the Spenser P.I. series (classic westerns in a different setting, really, but which went downhill when Susan entered the picture,) the Jesse Stone series (excellent) and recently a series of westerns that rival some of the best. I have listened to Appaloosa (well-read by Titus Welliver) and now Gunman's Rhapsody (rather amateurishly narrated by Ed Begley - he just doesn't have the grave and gravely voice of other better western narrators), a moody novel about events at the OK Corral that turn Hollywood black and white into multiple shades of gray.
The Earps are a family with typical family problems, and they are integrally part of political corruption and deceit in which they are willing participants. The catalyst for the shootout was Wyatt's interest and consummation of a love affair with Josie who just happened to be his friend the sheriff's girl. (The ultimate result was a county posse chasing a federal posse.) Throw this in with lingering Union versus Confederate sympathies, lots of guns, and a recipe for disaster was cooking. It's always difficult writing about events that have achieved mythic status; Parker does a credible job.
Some reviewers have suggested that the brooding Earp bears some resemblance to Spencer, Parker's hero of the long-running series. I didn't sense that although I might be myopic to the connection, certainly not the Spenser of Susan years.
Parker intersperses in the story actual news stories and letters, of questionable value to the story, but which I found historically interesting if not pertinent. An epilogue lists the deaths of the participants. Surprisingly, Josie lived until 1944. I suggest reading the Wikipedia entry for Wyatt to place everything firmly in historical perspective...more
I went through a phase where I read every western I could get my hands on. As all phases do, this one passed. Problem was that the stories and languagI went through a phase where I read every western I could get my hands on. As all phases do, this one passed. Problem was that the stories and language became rather routine and overly familiar. When I discovered that the writer of the Amos Walker series, Loren Estleman also wrote highly regarded westerns I thought I'd try another fix.
Estleman is really a very good writer and the language is addictive as much as the plot which is fun if familiar. It's 1881 in New Mexico and Page Murdock, a deputy U.S. Marshall in the employ of Judge Harlan Blackthorne, of Montana, has been sent incognito and ostensibly retired, to arrest and bring to justice the Baronet brothers. They had killed a man who had saved the judge's life during the Civil War. His task is complicated in that one of the brothers is reputed to have been killed and the other is a sheriff of Socorro County.
Estleman has a way with words and paints a vivid picture of a bleak landscape where the desert is "ablaze with that dry heat that opens your pores and sucks out the moisture like lemon carbonate through a straw." The town is called City of Widows because the males are regularly killed off in gun battles between banditos, revolutionaries, Apaches, and ranchers. His characters are wonderful, particularly the carpenter sheriff and Murdock's old lover/enemy Poker Annie who is truly a despicable woman....more
It's difficult to know just how to classify this book at first glance. Trevanian, pseudonym for a Rodnet Whitaker, former professor at the University It's difficult to know just how to classify this book at first glance. Trevanian, pseudonym for a Rodnet Whitaker, former professor at the University of Texas, insists all his books are spoofs. But the book is clearly much more than just a send-up of the classic Western revenge novel.
The "bad guy," Lieder, resembles that Lecter creep from the movie. He escapes from the "moonberry" (nuthouse) section at a maximum-security prison by persuading the guard that he has undergone an intense religious conversion. His goal is to form a militia to fight off what he believes is an international conspiracy to people America with immigrants. Shades of black U.N. helicopters. He was the "baddest of the bad," a brilliant maniac who had maimed whole families in the cause of electing William Jennings Bryan — he never kills, to avoid the death penalty. He and his fellow escapees descend on Twenty-Mile to steal a silver shipment that passes through the town weekly — he doesn‘t realize it‘s in the form of ore — in order to subsidize his movement. Twenty-Mile — so-called because it was twenty miles from a spot twenty miles away — is a dying town populated by a host of Western stereotypes. One prostitute is French, "a tall, lean, yellow-eyed black woman from New Orleans." Some of the language is clearly the author having a good time: "A susurrus [sic:] scurry of sliding scree drew his attention to three men climbing up the slope toward him." And one of the characters delights in telling everyone how the United States was imperialistic in its actions during the Spanish-American War. Clearly the author was not a fan of Theodore Roosevelt, noting the Rough Rider made sure there were plenty of photographers handy when he made his charge, then taking his whole company back to New York, where the real enemies, malaria, disease and bad water, couldn't follow.
An epilogue reveals the incident is based on a real event. Trevanian discovered the story almost by accident. He did a considerable amount of research, finally discovering most of the fine points in old newspapers of a neighboring town, Destiny. In fact, it's reading the details of what happened to the very real characters in the book that places the entire story in context. For example, we learn why the train returned almost immediately after dropping off the miners at Twenty-Mile, and why the town became completely deserted within a week after the events described in the book.
Trevanian has written a masterful re-creation of an extraordinary event in the history of the West that surpasses a Louis L'Amour novel....more
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