Resolution

OK, this is a buddy story. Virgil and Everett are close friends. They don't talk much. Virgil talks very little. The interaction is hilarious. They try to figure out what is right and wrong in their code. If you like buddy stories this is a good one and it is somewhat funny.

Imagine ten or twelve characters defined almost entirely by what they say. Robert B. Parker does precisely that in "Resolution", a sequel of sorts to "Appaloosa". It is sequel in the sense that the two main characters, Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole appear - and, happily, they haven't changed a bit. Both are the kind of men you can believe roamed the American West in the latter 19th Century. They are rough men, perfectly willing to kill others, but they are not barbarians. In fact, both are intelligent and sensitive, trying unconciously to resolve the issue of where they and all humanity stand in the cosmos. It may sound deep, but it isn't. Virgil and Everett are just trying to get through life one day at a time. Everett rides into the town of Resolution, a town that is still being built. Wolfson owns the Blackfoot saloon, the emporium, the hotel and bank. He is also the local cattle broker, delivering the cows from the the local ranchers, who are economically distressed, to market - and retaining a big chunk of the proceeds. The other economic heavyweights in the town are O'Malley, the owner of a copper mine and Fritz Stark, owner of a lumber business. Wolfson isn't satisfied with owning most of the town and controlling most of its economy. He wants it all. When Everett Hitch rides into this rough town, Wolfson hires him as a "lookout" in the Blackfoot, a bouncer really. Everett, a former army officer and graduate of West Point is rootless. So is his friend Virgil Cole, who shows up in Resolution. Cole recently killed a man who was involved with the woman Cole is fond of. He resigned as the lawman in Apaloosa because he no longer felt he was a law abiding citizen himself. Cole is laconic and speaks sparsely. So is Everett. Rose and Cato, two shooters hired by O'Malley speak the same way. Others such as Wolfson and the ill-fated Koy Wickham (not a spoiler - it's on the dustjacket) are more talkative. The mix of characters is wonderful. Virgil Cole, Everett Hitch, Rose and Cato could be fairly called professionl killers, which doesn't mean they are always on the wrong side of the law. Sometimes they are the law. Wolfson represents greed that may not have any other objective than personal enrichment by whatever means possible. O'Malley, Stark, Bob Redmond and the other minor ranchers and businessmen represent ordinary people who are just getting on with their lives and really don't want trouble or violence. Billie is the whore with a heart of gold that Everett protects as he does Beth Redmond, the abused wife of a rancher. There are assorted other characters, some of whom meet violent ends. Several dynamics are at work here. The conflict between Wolfson, O'Malley, Stark and the ranchers. The conflict between Wolfson, the employer, and Everett Hitch, the employee who does what he wants, not what he is told to do. The friendship between Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The relationship between Rose and Cato, two other gunmen hired by

Resolution is the second in what appears to be the start of a series of western novels featuring gunmen and sometime lawmen, Everett Hitch and his friend Virgil Cole. The first book is Appaloosa which you should read before Resolution. In Appaloosa you will learn a lot about these two characters that will make Resolution much more interesting and enjoyable. The roles in Appaloosa are somewhat reversed here: Everett Hitch arrives in Resolution before Virgil Cole does, and Virgil decides to hang around to help his friend. This is another new town, but one without any law. The local mine owner, Eamon O'Malley, and Amos Wolfson, local saloonkeeper and businessman, are on a collision course to see who can take over the other's activities. Naturally, Wolfson needs someone to keep order in the saloon, and Everett finds that to be easy work after he kills a local trouble maker. Matters become complicated by the interests of ranchers who want to raise their families in the area and make a little money, something they can't do with Wolfson squeezing them. Everett and Virgil have a soft heart for the ladies who rent by the hour and the families of the ranchers. Although Wolfson thinks he owns Everett and Virgil, they don't think of themselves as slaves and set out to do what seems right. This story explores many interesting themes about what law and order are based on, what civic and personal responsibilities are, the roles of men and women, and what it means to work for someone else. For those who like action, there's enough of that to satisfy without overwhelming the literary bent of the writing. All in all, if you want a thinking person's western, you will have a hard time finding a more satisfying one. Although the writing is clearly defined by the genre, Parker's plot and dialog allow Resolution to provide fresh angles for old themes. It's fun see how Mr. Parker does it.

After the final scenes of Robert B. Parker's novel APPALOOSA, fans knew the story of Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole couldn't end there. Especially not with a movie starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen waiting in the wings. RESOLUTION takes up only a short time after the previous novel. Everett Hitch is still riding solo at this point and takes a job at the Blackfoot saloon as a security guy. I enjoy the relationship between Everett and Virgil, because that relationship is the bones of what Parker has stated will be a three-book series. I knew I wouldn't have to wait long for the action to begin, or for Everett and Virgil to get back together. Parker delineates his two principle characters very well. Virgil Cole is an unfinished man in a way. He knows what he has been but he doesn't yet know what he will become. Everett Hitch, on the other hand, has no qualms about addressing what he is. His moral convictions are centered and steady, and he never questions his actions or his motivations for doing them. The town of Resolution remains somewhat undefined and isn't seated in the historical Old West. Parker seems content to just lay the town in where he wants to and sketch in the background and surroundings the way he did in APPALOOSA. Given the story that he wants to tell is skeletal and action-packed, readers don't need much of a history or true-to-life geographical setting the way Louis L'Amour and Elmer Kelton do them. In no time at all, Everett finds himself neck-deep in trouble. As security man for the Blackfoot Saloon, he works for Amos Wolfson. Wolfson is intent on buying up as much of the town and surrounding land as he can, and he's made enemies of the local ranchers and Eamon O'Malley, Resolution's other financial baron who is also making moves at a major land grab. Although Parker concentrates on the relationship between Everett and Virgil, he paints an interesting picture of an Old West town being born. The shifting fortunes of the populace bounce back and forth between Wolfson and O'Malley as each of them squares off to become top dog of Resolution. Everett quickly ends up becoming recognized as a protector of women, starting with the prostitutes that work the two saloons, and spilling over into the domestic arena. He's a definite man of action, but also of compassion, and that rankles the ire of Wolfson who doesn't want the added aggravation. Still, Everett sticks to his guns. The characters are simple for the most part, but that's why I enjoy reading these books. Parker portrays Everett and Virgil as the same kind of men I grew up with in the small Oklahoma towns where I lived. I understand the values at once, even though a lot of people might think those men were more complicated. Virgil seems driven to understand more about what he's doing and why, but Everett just accepts himself without question. I think the duality between the two men, the places where they fit together so well, and Virgil's imperfections

Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole, Parker's protagonists in Appaloosa, are back. This time they're in a town in the Western territory with the promising name of Resolution. Needless to say, Resolution will be a better, but less-populated town, when their work is through there. The western is at its best when it is exploring the implications of a world without law, a world with shifting rules and shifting borders, a world defined by the men and women who find themselves there and must somehow create civilization (or hell) by themselves. That is the ethos of Resolution and Parker plays it like a first-chair violinist. I have always said that he is at his best when he is stretched and his occasional forays into this genre stretch him. The result is a tight plot, engaging characters, and the opportunity to reflect, very economically, on the nature of man and the nature of law. The dialogue is spectacular, as is the tone and the texture. Bottom line: prime Parker. Don't miss it.

Robert B. Parker is seemingly constitutionally incapable of writing a bad English sentence. This is an extraordinary tale of friendship, honor, love beyond reason, and identity. I'm not surprised that Parker would look to the West to find heroes with the sort of complex morality he writes about especially in the Spenser and Jesse Stone series. That he does so with such authority makes reading this a genuine pleasure.