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    Appaloosa: A Novel
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    Appaloosa: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Appaloosa: A Novel
    Audiobook4 hours

    Appaloosa: A Novel

    Written by Robert Parker

    Narrated by Titus Welliver

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 7, 2005
    ISBN9780739318751
    Unavailable
    Appaloosa: A Novel
    Author

    Robert Parker

    Robert B Parker was the best-selling author of over 60 books, including Small Vices, Sudden Mischief, Hush Money, Hugger Mugger, Potshot, Widows Walk, Night Passage, Trouble in Paradise, Death in Paradise, Family Honor, Perish Twice, Shrink Rap, Stone Cold, Melancholy Baby, Back Story, Double Play, Bad Business, Cold Service, Sea Change, School Days and Blue Screen. He died in 2010 at the age of 77.

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    Reviews for Appaloosa

    4/5

    262 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a very fine western, something that rises quite a bit above standard fare. Virgil Cole can be a mean sonofabitch. He gets a bean up his ass and he's liable to beat the shit out of someone for no reason at all. I'm not too fond of that aspect of his character. However, he does try hard to be a good guy, a town marshall when one is needed. Not too many people can do what he does. The story is told by his "assistant" Everett Hitch. Hitch is a keen observer.The story is told in an easy to read style that manages to display some fine writing. The basic story is a familiar one. Bad guys rule a small town. Someone needs to clean it up. A woman manages to get in the way of things. Parker handles the familiar elements very well. I think what makes this a very fine novel is that it is about a friendship and what that friendship means and the sacrifice that a friend will make when it is needed.I remember when I saw the film a few years ago that I thought I should read the book. I am glad I did.
    • 4/5
      (AUDIO). A classic western story. Bad-ass sheriff and his trusty side-kick come into a lawless town to protect the citizens from the evil robber baron wanting to take over the town. The hero isn't necessarily a white-hat hero, he's not above shooting first and asking questions later. His life is complicated by his cowboy lifestyle and his new love for the beautiful local widow. Classic, pretty good short read.
    • 3/5
      The style is the same as in Parker's Spenser series with terse, to-the-point dialoge from the main characters. The two main characters are reminicient of Hawk and "Hawk-Lite". This was an enjoyable read. Definately a "guys" book. The ending was pleasently not a "standard" type ending but given the nature of the characters a highly plausible one.
    • 4/5
      I liked the characters, the situations, the dialogue, and that the story flowed right along. Despite a bit of profanity, I enjoyed it, and I plan to read more books by this author.
    • 4/5
      Appaloosa is one of the best Western novels that I have read, and Robert Parker’s finest novel. The two principal characters, Virgil Cole and his deputy, Everett Hitch, who narrates the story, are two very well-rounded and likeable characters. Part of the reason that the novel really works is the presence of these two characters. In this story, Cole and Hitch arrive in a new town where the resident bad guy, Randall Bragg, killed the previous marshal and deputy. After they arrest Bragg, he is tried and sentenced to be hanged. This leads up to a climactic gun fight where hired guns are trying to free Bragg. Meanwhile Cole falls for a high maintenance woman that Hitch knows is no good for him. When Bragg returns to town this sets up for a climactic and surprise ending.There are many things that make Apaloosa work, but what I liked most is the easy going narration style that really complements the mood and content of the novel. The prose is written professionally with few flaws. This is a quickly paced novel packed with plenty of action. Even if you are like me and don’t typically read Westerns, this one is well worth reading.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
    • 4/5
      Spannender Western um die schießfreudigen Revolverhelden Virgil Cole und Everett Hitch, die ihre Treffsicherheit als Sheriff und Deputy in den Dienst des Gesetzes stellen - überall dort, wo man sie anheuert, weil die Dinge außer Kontrolle geraten sind. Sofern die Bezahlung stimmt und die Regeln - sprich selbstgemachten Gesetze - der beiden uneingeschränkt akzeptiert werden. So landen sie eines Tages in Appaloosa, mit dem Auftrag, die Stadt aus dem Würgegriff von Randall Bragg und seiner Bande zu befreien. Das scheint zunächst auch zu gelingen, aber dann geraten die Dinge außer Kontrolle, weil Virgil Cole sich in eine gutaussehende Witwe verliebt, die zufällig in Appaloosa strandet - und sich nur zu gern mit dem mächtigsten Mann der Stadt verbündet. Besonders gelungen ist die Darstellung der wortkargen Freundschaft zwischen Cole und Hitch, die schon seit über 15 Jahren als Team zusammen arbeiten und sich blind vertrauen. Äußerst sehenswert ist auch die Verfilmung des Buches mit dem genialen Schauspieler-Gespann Ed Harris und Viggo Mortensen!
    • 4/5
      Parker's writing is atmostpheric and spare. As usual, his male characters live by a code and tend towards introspection. I had a sense of impending doom throughout, perhaps because up to this point my main exposure to westerns was Shane. It was definitely interesting to listen to something in a genre I'm almost completely unfamiliar with, but I think I need to read or listen to more to get a better sense of whether this is more representative of Parker's style or the style of western's in general. Titus Welliver reading style suits both the genre and the book itself.
    • 4/5
      APPALOOSAFRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011 This is a beautifully written book. Its simplicity is astounding. Dialogue led, it is narrated through the words of Everett Hitch who met up with his gun slinging buddy Virgil Cole fifteen years earlier during a shoot out. And shooting it out with rogues, rascals and villains is how they made their living since. Depriving others of any living in order to make a living is for many the way of the world. I am not a Western fan. I long opted to look down my nose at them. Even in jail as a 16 year old I would cast them to the side as I foraged through the bookshelf that sat in the middle of A Wing Crumlin Road Prison along the wall closest to the main road. Before I made it to my teens I would read Pocomoto but never found the storyline stimulating. In 1982 a jail friend, Pat Livingstone, told me to read JT Edson, but only for a laugh. Big Liv claimed Edson was an English postman who had never been to America in his life and wouldn’t know what a cowboy looked like. Yet, here he was, an accomplished novelist in the Western genre. Seemingly it didn’t take much to make the grade. I don’t think I took his advice, so never went to the bother of finding anything out about Edson but recall at some point reading a brace of Louis L’Amour books. Apart from allowing me to while away an hour or two they failed to cut the mustard in any real sense. They were hardly books that would have me racing to the cell in anticipation of the night time lock up.During the blanket protest had Westerns been available I would have read them. Any port in a storm as the saying goes, well apart from the port bible. That was one destination I was not bound for, regardless of the tedium induced by the otherwise total dearth of reading material. I guess the Christians who took such delight in torturing us must have felt that with a literally captive audience in their grasp we would have no option but to read their silly book and stupid mini comics with their graphic depictions of hell. I have succumbed to many wrongs in life but the bible is not amongst them. In spite of my general aversion to the genre a Western remains one of my all time favourite books, Shane by Jack Schaefer. That remains the unsurpassed Western both on screen and in print. I had already watched the film Appaloosa featuring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen and was more than just impressed by it. It is normally reliable advice to never judge a book by its movie, so many films failing to live up to the promise of the book. This is an exception. When my wife suggested I read the book I didn’t hesitate. I began it at Drogheda on a bus on the way to Belfast. By the time I had arrived at Dublin Airport on my return journey I had it finished. Some readers have cast doubt on the ability of an East Coast Bostonian to write Westerns. In this I am reminded of Michael Manley’s scathing criticism of a Caribbean writer describing snow falling in his face, something he had never experienced. Yet if JT Edson, Big Liv’s English postie, can try his hand then Parker has some claim. Bragg is the typical bully of the western genre. The quintessential baddie he is to be found in every walk of life. His men shoot dead a townsman and rape the victim’s wife. The sheriff is shot dead by Bragg investigating. Cole and Hitch are hired to bring Bragg in. There is a sense that both Cole and Hitch fit one of Orwell’s characterisations of people: they want to be good but not too good and not all the time. Cole, in love with the promiscuous Allie French, is concerned at her waywardness but never so concerned as to be distracted or have his deadly aim diverted. Bragg’s fatal mistake might have been less in shooting the sheriff but in jumping into Allie’s bed. Even if the end is somewhat predictable the real joy of this is to be acquired from simply reading the plot. Robert B Parker, 2010, Appaloosa. Corvus: UK. ISBN-13: 978-1848873438
    • 5/5
      A fast-paced story with an excellent tale of friendship. Although I had already seen the 2008 major motion picture based on it, it did not ruin the book.
    • 5/5
      The talented and imminently readable Robert B. Parker turns his hand to the Old West with satisfying results. The main characters are Virgil Cole, a fast and deadly gun hand, and Everett Hitch, his loyal deputy and sidekick. Their relationship, and subtle co-dependency, will remind long-time Parker readers of Spenser and Hawk.Virgil is the top hand, no doubt about that. He is the "keeper of the code" and the man whose prowess with a six-shooter is legendary. Everett is the educated one (West Point), with significant experience in the US Army and a devotee of his trusted 8-gauge shotgun.
    • 4/5
      Really good western novels are few and far between. Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker can join that rare breed as it more than exceeded my expectations. Good story, original and interesting characters, a place setting that helped define the book.The small town of Appaloosa needed help in dealing with a ruthless rancher and his hired guns. They found what they needed when Virgil Cole and his assistant Everett Hitch ride in town. Cleaning up towns is their specialty. Yes, the plot is familiar but Robert Parker manages to put his own twist on events. He also adds a few bumps in road for Cole and Hitch, especially in the person of Allie French, a woman of mystery that Cole takes up with.I have seen the excellent movie that has been made from this book and I had a hard time divorcing myself from the movie characters while I read this book. Although picturing Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen is not exactly a hardship. One of my favorite things in this book is the dialogue, sparse yet full of prose, it positively rolls off the tongue.If you are in the mood for a straight forward, adventuresome western yarn, Appaloosa is the real deal.
    • 5/5
      Fans of the Western will find nothing new here, but they won't find anything tired either. Resting comfortably in the boots of stock characters--the lawman, his partner, his woman, and his nemesis--and moving by a decent pace that sacrifices long, expository narrative for nimble dialogue, this book is a fun read that manages to be just deep and complex enough to welcome some post-reading thoughts. Shoot-outs are quick and clean, there's lots of coffee and whiskey, and all the characters--save for the truly villainous--are good to their word and believe in honest morals. It's a simple story, but one that we love because of its simplicity. Of course, as with all good stories, there are twists and turns, and one final twist complicates things in a pleasantly real way.
    • 4/5
      This was my first book I downloaded to my Kindle. I love the Parker novels for a quick read. This was the first one of his westerns I read. It is the usual Spencer storyline where a tough marshal and a reserved deputy try to clean up a lawless town. If you want a quick 2 hour read, this is good entertainment.
    • 3/5
      Westerns really aren't my thing, but I do like Robert B. Parker and my parents both recommended Appaloosa. I listened to it on audiobook. I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away and doesn't make me want to read more westerns. It was just okay for me, but I'm definitely not the target audience and I would think that fans of westerns would appreciate it.
    • 4/5
      I don't think I realized how incredibly similar the book and movie versions of this story were. I saw the movie in theaters when it came out, and I found myself recognizing dialogue and scenes that were taken almost verbatim from the book. For me, this added to my enjoyment of both because it gave me a visual reference for the book but also deepened the characters that I first encountered in the movie.
    • 4/5
      Now I need to see the movie, AND read the other 2 books: "Resolution" and "Brimstone." Robert B. Parker's style lends itself to a Western beautifully. "'Virgil,' I said,'I'm not minding it, but why are we up here, looking at these horses?' 'I like wild horses,' Cole said. 'Well, that's nice, Virgil.'"Action, humor, men of the gun who are also men of integrity and honor. And, of course, women: for Everett, "a clean, dark-haired young whore named Katie Goode"; and for Virgil, there is the fragile and faithless Allie French: "She was a little travel-worn, but still good-looking, with a strong young body that her dress didn't hide."Allie is the Western version of Jesse Stone's obnoxious Jenn--thoough it's slightly more forgivable for a woman of the 1800s to sleep with "the stud horse," the alpha male, her next perceived meal ticket, as if she will be helpless without a male protector. "'I'm scared all the time,' Allie said. '[...of]being alone, or being with the wrong man, having no money, no place to live. If I don't have a man, what am I supposed to do?'" And because, for whatever reason, Virgil won't leave her, Everett does the only thing he can to protect his friend from the woman he loves. "Then I went and hugged Cole, got on my horse, and rode past the marshall's office and out of town." Even the last line has that perfect Western vibe to it: "It was going to be a long ride, and there was no need to hurry."
    • 5/5
      My first foray into the Western genre, and I really enjoyed it! I like Parker's style of writing and you can feel the tones of his Jesse Stone style here. Hitch is a fantastic character, likable and human without being too rough to relate too. Bragg is a great villain and I was pleasantly surprised by the twist with his thread. Personally, I find Allie French annoying and without redeeming qualities, and that doesn't change ever in the story. However, it didn't stop me from reading the next two in the series, and I plan to pick up the fourth, Blue Eyed Devil, as soon as it comes out in May. A good read, definitely worth checking out.
    • 3/5
      Slow story with entertaining bits of western action. Predictable story and the love drama between the characters was drawn out. I think the book would have been better if it was just lawmen against the badguys. The love story just slowed the book down and was a not needed dynamic for me in this western novel.
    • 4/5
      I love a good western and this one fit the bill. It had all the necessary ingredients: American Indians, femme fatale, gunfights, long treks across the wilderness, strong, silent hero. I thoroughly enjoyed it!