Blue-Eyed Devil

March 29, 2010
This excellent posthumous western from bestseller Parker (1932–2010) continues the saga of gun-slinging saddle pals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch (after Brimstone
) as they trade wisecracks and hot lead with back-shooting owlhoots and murderous Apaches in the town of Appaloosa. Cole and Hitch used to be the law in town, but now Appaloosa has a corrupt, ambitious, and deadly police chief named Amos Callico backed up by 12 rifle-toting cops of dubious background, and though Callico sees Cole and Hitch as impediments to his plans for extortion and high political office, his threats don't worry the boys much. Meanwhile, Cole kills the son of a prominent rancher in a fair fight, renegade Apaches plan an attack on the town, and a mysterious dandy arrives in town with a sinister agenda. Fortunately, 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.

April 15, 2010
Now that they've cleaned up Appaloosa, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have to contend with its new police chief in their fourth and presumably final adventure.

All white men are blue-eyed devils, but Amos Callico is more infernal than most. No sooner has he settled in as Appaloosa's new chief of police, his authority bolstered by a retinue of 12 officers, than he begins to extort protection money from Lamar Speck, who owns the Boston House saloon, and Buford Posner, of the Golden Palace. Callico, who has his eyes set on the governor's mansion and then on the White House, wastes no time in attempting to neuter the opposition by offering jobs to Virgil and Everett, now living a frontier version of domestic life with Allie French, the lover Virgil rescued in Brimstone (2009), and the traumatized former Indian captive Laurel, who won't speak to anyone but Virgil. Naturally, the two gunslingers turn Callico down and promptly sign on as bouncers at the Boston House. The stage is clearly set for a climactic confrontation between the corrupt police chief and his minions and the unsullied heroes. Before that can happen, though, Virgil's half-breed friend Pony Flores comes to town with his brother Kha-to-nay in tow. Pony has helped Kha-to-nay escape from prison, and trouble is sure to follow the pair. Despite the arrival of Pinkerton agent Dell Garrison, however, that trouble doesn't take the form most readers will expect. Instead, Kha-ton-nay will ally himself with a party of wily Apache braves, and retired Confederate General Horatio Laird, whose no-account son Nicholas Laird killed in the early going, and his hired gunman Chauncey Teagarden will assume central roles. Rest assured that Virgil will get more opportunities to live up to his assertion,"Killing don't bother me…Long as I follow the rules."

More shifting allegiances, moral dilemmas and characters capable of change than Virgil and Everett's fans may be used to. It's a shame that this youngest of the late Parker's franchises has to end so soon.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from April 1, 2010
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, the late Parkers other duo of terse-talking man-buddies, make their way back to the town they cleaned up in their first western, Appaloosa (2005), and find a particularly odorous piece of trash now stinking up the placethe new chief of police, Amos Callico. The chief has his sights set on the governors seat and from there the Senate and even the White House, so the last thing in the world he wants is someone firm standing in his way. Virgil and Everett know one thing, though, and its standing firm. They set themselves up protecting local businesses that arent so keen on bending to the official extortion racket and staring down Callico and his swarm of deputies every dozen or so pages. In addition to a typical Parker cast of cleanly defined good guys, bad guys, and meek, no-account guys, two new heavies enter the fray: a gunman who may be as good as Virgil and probably wants to kill him and a fiery Chiricahua outlaw whose hatred of white men sparks the first of the two bloody battle scenes. The substance of Virgil and Everetts idle philosophizing over right versus law doesnt stake out any new territory, but the flavor of their talk is as delectable as ever. Perhaps more intriguing is watching them try to figure out women (they dont) while loving them anyway. It would be blasphemy to suggest that, given time, Virgil and Everett might have eclipsed Spenser and Hawk, but its just a shame well never find out for sure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)