Pun Salad

This new book by Robert B. Parker is a western. I'm a Parker fan, but not particularly a fan of this genre.

At first I was slightly worried that the protagonists here would be clones of Spenser and Hawk; this turned out to not be a problem. Virgil Cole and his sidekick Everett (the narrator) are gunmen specializing in bringing order to lawless towns. Unfortunately in the small mining town of Appaloosa, they come close to meeting their match in a ruthless bad guy named Bragg. Complicating things somewhat is Allie, an untalented piano player with whom Cole falls in love. Unfortunately, her character is flawed enough that even the whores look down on her.

Like most Parker books, the reading is smooth and easy. And this was a welcome departure from his usual characters.