Brimstone (Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch Series #3) by Robert B. Parker

From the Publisher

When we last saw Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole, they had just put things to right in the rough-and-tumble Old West town of Resolution. It’s now a year later, and Virgil has only one thing on his mind: Allie French, the woman who stole his heart during their days in Appaloosa.

Making their way across New Mexico and Texas, the pair finally locate Allie in a small-town brothel, her body and spirit crushed. Together the three head north to start over in Brimstone. But things are no longer the same between Virgil and Allie; too much has happened, and Virgil can’t face what Allie did to get by during the year they were apart. Allie vows to change, and seeks redemption through the local church and its charismatic leader, Brother Percival. Allie is not alone in her devotion to the hellfire-and-damnation spouting minister, whose sermons have enthralled the townspeople. Percival is quick with the collection plate–and quick to want Allie for his own. Everett and Virgil easily secure positions as the town’s deputies, thanks to their gun-for-hire reputations. Their authority is immediately challenged when Brother Percival stirs up trouble at local saloons. Violence escalates into murder as Virgil and Everett struggle to keep the peace–and keep Allie from harm’s way.

Publishers Weekly

Parker's gunslinging saddle pals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch return for their third adventure, in which the two lawmen-for-hire exchange snappy dialogue and hot lead with assorted owlhoots, deadbeats and unwashed baddies in south Texas. Here, Virgil and Everett rescue Allie French, Virgil's former sweetie who ran off to become a prostitute, and head to Brimstone, where the two gunmen sign on as deputy sheriffs. Brimstone, however, doesn't exactly provide a quiet respite for this trio. Virgil and Allie have a hard time getting over his hurt and her shame, a mysterious Indian is killing local folks and leaving taunting messages, and brutal saloon owner Pike and corrupt preacher Brother Percival are headed for a showdown. Virgil and Everett settle on a tricky solution that involves a talented tracker, a bribe, a double-cross, a noxious cloud of gun smoke and a pile of perforated bodies. The result is classic Parker-exciting, suspenseful, fast-moving and entertaining. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

Freelance gunslingers Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch (Resolution, 2008, etc.) ride into yet another town and treat it to another baptism of fire. Though he hasn't seen Allie French for a year, Virgil has never given up hope of finding her again. Riding south with sidekick and amanuensis Everett, he catches up with her in Placido, Texas. Virgil and Everett spirit her off in jig time, but the magic doesn't return so easily. Everett can spot the problem with Virgil right off: "With Allie he was different. I didn't like different." Clearly it'll take something special to rekindle the flame-something like the job Virgil and Everett are offered as deputy sheriffs in nearby Brimstone, "an actual town" that's more than just a collection of gamblers, drunks and whores. Val Verde County sheriff Dave Morrissey is concerned by the growing tension between Pike, a gang leader who's opened a perfectly law-abiding saloon, and Brother Percival, a firebrand revivalist determined to close down every watering hole in Brimstone. With each saloon Brother Percival shutters, his mission sets him more clearly on a collision course with Pike. The episodic plot prescribes some preliminary skirmishes: the kidnapping of a slain rancher's wife and daughter by a Comanche brave with a grudge against Pike; their rescue by Virgil and Everett and a half-breed tracker they've hooked up with; and their traumatic difficulties readjusting to life in Brimstone. But there's never any doubt that all this is heading to a climactic showdown between Pike and Brother Percival, followed by a post-climactic showdown between Virgil and his friends and the sole survivor, according to the iron rule that governed Virgil's first twoadventures: "Let the vermin fight to the death and then pick off the winner."No surprises, but provides some excellent evidence for anyone who wants to argue that Spenser's creator has been writing nothing but westerns for 35 years.

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