See also reviews and links to the Left Behind book series of Christian fiction by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Prolific Parker pens pair of shootoutsBook reviews by John Myers
As prolific an author as Parker is, with two other series already underway, the Jesse Stone cop novels and the Sunny Randall private-eye novels -- the latter a female version of Spenser -- Parker can never publish too often for me. I've read all his books and my only complaint is they're never long enough. I would avidly consume a War and Peace-sized tome by Parker. (For more info about Parker, see The Spensarium, the Original Unofficial Robert B. Parker fan site.) |
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Gunman's Rhapsody
 , by Robert B. Parker, Putnam, 289 pages,
Amazon Price: $22.95.I read Gunman's Rhapsody first -- saving the best for last -- and was pleased to find it up to Parker's usual page-turning standards. It's a fictional retelling of the Wyatt Earp saga "with the full weight of American history behind it," according to the publisher.
And Parker's insights both deepen and widen the Earp reputation. Parker's pen brings to life a host of storied characters, including Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson, friends of Wyatt and the other Earp brothers, as well as foes such as Clay Allison, John Ringo and Curley Bill Brocius. And Parker puts real flesh on the bones of the oft-told story of the feud between Sheriff Johnny Behan and Wyatt over showgirl Josie Marcus, which led to the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral. Josie was the love of Wyatt's life, but in hindsight one almost wonders if all the blood spilled over that romance was worth it. If for none other, it's almost reason enough just for the joy of reading Parker's retelling of this cornerstone saga of the wild and wooly old American West. See all books by Robert B. Parker on Amazon Books.
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Potshot, by Robert B. Parker, Putnam, 294 pages,
Amazon Price: $19.16.Parker's Potshot was worth the wait while I consumed Gunman's Rhapsody. Potshot is number 28 in the Spenser series about the toughest of tough guys and his friends and enemies. In Potshot, Spenser leaves his Boston haunts to go west to the old mining town of Potshot, Arizona, collecting along the way a thug's gallery of friends and former foes turned buddies. In fact, most if not all of Spenser's thug buddies first turned up in earlier novels as foes but were won over by the tough but humorous private-eye's winning ways. Even his oldest buddy, the menacing black underworld figure Hawk, first met Spenser when they were in the process of pounding each other into submission in a prize-fight ring many years hence. Joining Hawk and Spenser in Potshot are fellow Boston gangster Vinnie Morris, gay Georgia bodybuilder Tedy Sapp, California gangsters Hispanic thug Chollo and Kiowa thug Bobby Horse, and Las Vegas tough guy Bernard J. Fortunato. Many of these former foes turned friends have shown up in previous novels, but this is the first gathering of King Spenser's Thugs Roundtable. It's an amusing and bloody remake of "The Magnificent Seven" against a gang of 40 thieves led by an Ali Baba character named The Preacher, who is robbing and terrorizing the Los Angeles refugees now settled in Potshot. Just figuring out just what everybody is really fighting over in Potshot takes up most of the tale, but trust Spenser, Hawk and the other members of this thug's roundtable to finally sort it all out. Throw in a beautiful blonde as Spenser's client and another assortment of foes from the Los Angeles Mafia and among the so-called "good guys" in Potshot and you have yet another Spenser tale that comes slowly to a boil and erupts in a shootout worthy of the O.K. Corral. As usual, the tale ends far too soon for this avid reader. The dialog between Spenser and his buddies is reason enough for reading this book a second time. |
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Robert B. Parker
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