Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse: A Robert B. Parker Western
Since Robert B. Parker’s death, various authors have tried to revive his Spenser and Jesse Stone mystery series with decidedly mixed results. Knott, who adapted the movie version of Parker’s Appaloosa, does better with the author’s western series starring maverick lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The pair’s latest assignment seems routine enough: escort some Mexican prisoners from Texas to the border. That part goes fine, but on the return trip, the train is hijacked by a band of desperadoes led by the notorious Bloody Bob Brandice, with whom Virgil has some history. Turns out the governor of Texas is on the train with his wife, daughters, and $500,000. Echoing Elmore Leonard’s Hombre (1961), Knott throws Cole and Hitch into one of those existential situations typical of the best westerns. Trouble arrives out of nowhere, and it’s up to the guys with the quickest wits and fastest guns to get out of it. Knott may not quite catch the staccato beat of Cole and Hitch’s understated dialogue, but the plot careers along just fine, nicely augmented by the wealth of nineteenth-century railroad detail. --Bill Ott--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.