Buckskin

April 15, 2019
Marshal Virgil Cole and Deputy Marshall Everett Hitch face what amounts to an underground range war in Appaloosa. The minute rancher James McCormick found gold on the parcel of land he'd purchased from Henri Baptiste, Baptiste rued the sale and tried everything he could to persuade McCormick and his brother, Daniel, to sell it back. The measures the Baptiste Group took included hiring seven gunslingers headed by fearsome Victor Bartholomew to intimidate the McCormicks and their miners, two of whom have now vanished. Nothing daunted, the McCormicks have engaged Edward Hodge and some gunmen of their own. As each side swaggers and threatens and waits for the other to back down, tensions rise across the town's 4,000 souls. But dressmaker Allie French, Cole's sweetie, still keeps her sights fixed firmly on Appaloosa Days, the celebration of local culture she's enticed visiting actress/singer Martha Kathryn to join. Since sparks have instantly flown between Martha and Hitch, the lawmen have an even greater stake than usual in keeping the peace. But that promises to be harder than they know. An unnamed kid has broken out of jail, traced his roots to Appaloosa, and set his course for the troubled town, apparently robbing and killing everyone in his path except for a teamster's wife whose Amazonian figure makes her even more intimidating than him. In short order, she takes him to bed, stokes the fires of his quest for vengeance, and tags along to provide logistical support. Cole and Hitch, who've now appeared in more novels written by Knott (Robert B. Parker's Revelation, 2017, etc.) than by their creator, have little to do but stand around, tote up the rising body count and occasionally augment it, and offer gruffly monosyllabic responses to questions that come their way as the perfect storm gathers to strike their hometown. Earnest, heavier than usual on old-fashioned detective work, and ritualistic to a fault. If you're surprised by anything that happens, you need to read more Westerns.

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June 3, 2019
Knott’s sixth western featuring U.S. Marshal Virgil Cole and Deputy Marshal Everett Hitch (after 2017’s Revelation) successfully evokes the spirit of Parker’s originals. Virgil and Everett find themselves in harm’s way when a feud breaks out between two groups with conflicting claims about a gold discovery near the frontier city of Appaloosa. Half was found on land owned by the Baptiste Group, a consortium of businessmen, and half on land that the group sold a year before to two Irish ranchers, the McCormick brothers. Experiencing sellers’ remorse, Henri Baptiste hired gunmen to intimidate the McCormicks, who then retained their own. The fraught situation becomes more so after one of the McCormicks’ miners goes missing. Meanwhile, Knott foreshadows more violence in a subplot tracing the journey toward Appaloosa by an unnamed youth, introduced escaping from the cell where he was being held on murder charges by using a sharpened spoon to kill his jailer. Witty, laconic byplay between the leads, which effectively leavens the grimness of the series’ bloody backdrop, will remind many of Parker’s better-known Spenser books. Parker fans will hope for a lot more of the same from Knott. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

May 1, 2019
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are still the town marshals in the thriving western community of Appaloosa. Allie, Virgil's significant other, owns a dress shop and is the driving force behind the upcoming Appaloosa Days celebration. But before the festivities can take place, Cole and Hitch must deal with escalating tensions over a nearby gold strike that has two townsfolk squabbling over the rights to the other's claim. Inevitably, the bluster turns to violence, and the two men involved in the feud hire gunslingers. Meanwhile, the wife of a teamster has a score to settle with Cole and is plotting revenge. Between the vengeful woman and the rival hired guns, the Appaloosa Days fireworks could turn out to be quite a bit different than the ones Allie is planning. Knott ups his game with every entry he contributes to the Cole-Hitch series. The dialogue is sharper, the plotting more complex, and Knott is mastering Parker's spare style. Very entertaining reading for western fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)