Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse ~ Robert Knott

Whenever my mates or family members are handed a box of second-hand books they set aside the westerns for me. Apparently, I am the only person they (and I) know who reads them. They were the first historical fictions that I'd ever read and I'm still drawn to the wild, expansive scenery and experiencing the growth of settlements into, villages, into towns which finally become cities. The thing that truly intrigues me most are notions of, and distinctions between law and justice, and how neither is really down to an agreed set of moral or ethical values.

Robert B. Parker wrote two series that I enjoyed tremendously; Spencer and Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch. The former is a hardboiled gumshoe in Boston, the latter, a western series with two no-nonsense characters charged with keeping law and order. When Parker died in 2010 and his completed forth instalment was published posthumously I assumed that Virgil and Everett had been written off into the sunset. However, Robert Knott who co-wrote the film adaptation of the first book in this series Appaloosa was enlisted by the Parker family to carry the torch.

Sometimes I feel as though when an author has left this mortal coil, his or her characters have as well. However, there are some good examples of where another is able to capture the essence of the those characters and the late authors' phrasing, intent and drama. Robert Knott falls within this group. I was worried that Cole and Hitch would change, become more verbose or more super-human, but Knott gratefully kept the two as sensible and contained as the late Parker had.

Deciding to return home via train, giving their horses a rest, the two protagonists unexpectedly find themselves defending the passengers against a gang of robbers mid-heist. The main problem is that these robbers happen to be former nemeses of Coles' who've all joined forces, including Bloody Bob Brandice who was thought to have been killed by Cole twelve years before. As they seek out the miscreants, they discover the magnitude of damage the theft would cause for the future of country and who it would empower all the while Cole works through his domestic troubles.

Virgil and Everett's relationship is still relaxed even with the odd tense moment. Their complete trust in each other and the knowledge of each other's skills and weaknesses is still powerful and times quite comical, as they have always been. The seemingly casual attitude toward danger also has not changed. My only criticism is the lack of times Cole defers to Hitch regarding word selection during a banter with a 'baddie'. I had always found those moments realistic, an example of how when focused on some particular task, the mind might not be able to process what it should already know. I do hope that this is not the end of Virgil and Everett, and would not hesitate to read another should Knott pen it.

Review originally appeared on the now defunct Paternoster Row Legacy blog.