When a Denver lawman is killed in Appaloosa, U.S. Marshall Virgil Cole and deputy Everett Hitch must track down three dangerous men as quickly as possible. However, this murder leaves Virgil and Everett with more questions than answers, and when a bounty hunter from Virgil's past arrives in town, and with a new woman in town catching Everett's eye, things get even more complicated in this booming mining town.

ROBERT B. PARKER'S BLACKJACK is brought to life by Robert Knott, adding another excellent story to the Cole and Hitch series. Fans won't be disappointed and new readers will fall in love with the characters and the setting of the fictional Wild West town of Appaloosa. The setting is fantastic, and everything from buildings to roads, to landscape is described with just the right words. The descriptions are short, but Knott knows how to use specific words to bring a setting to life. The jail and new casino are especially well done, and put the reader right into the Wild West. Virgil with his no nonsense attitude and unflappable character make him the perfect gun hand and cowboy.

BLACKJACK gets the perfect narrator in Everett, Virgil's steady and intelligent right-hand man. Allie has been hard to read in previous novels, but she starts to have a more likable and genuine personality in ROBERT B. PARKER'S BLACKJACK. There are two very surprising characters who enter the story, and they add a few great twists into the plot. I appreciate that ROBERT B. PARKER'S BLACKJACK isn't just a straightforward story, but one with plot twists, secrets, and a little mystery. If readers are looking for a gun fighting, gambling, cowboy filled Western then they should look no further than the thrilling Cole and Hitch series with ROBERT B. PARKER'S BLACKJACK being another outstanding addition to a page-turning series.

Book Summary

Itinerant lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch return in the gritty new installment of the New York Times–bestselling series.

Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves, and whores, all boiling in a cauldron of excess and greed.

And there’s a new menace in town: a wealthy, handsome easterner—and the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino—Boston Bill Black.

Boston Bill is flashy and bigger than life. He’s a prankster and a notorious womanizer, and with eight notches on the handle of his Colt, he’s rumored quick on the draw. When he finds himself wanted for a series of murders, he quickly vanishes.

Cole and Hitch locate and arrest him, but Boston Bill escapes once again. Another murder sets the duo on his trail, eventually taking them back to Appaloosa—where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.