Gunman's rhapsody /

In 1879, the Earp bothers, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, moved to Tombstone, Arizona, to seek their fortune. Shortly after arriving, Wyatt saw a traveling play. One of the lesser players was Josie Marcus. Later, when she returns to Tombstone on the arm of one of Wyatt's political rivals, Johnny Behan, the events are set in motion that culminate with the most famous gun battle in the Old West, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Parker, best known for his Spenser detective novels (really modern westerns set in Boston), settles seamlessly into this classic western story of a fearless man and the woman who captures his eternal soul. Readers who have enjoyed Elmore Leonard's early westerns or even his more recent Cuba Libre will relish this similar effort. Wyatt Earp is Spenser with spurs, and the supporting characters all have alter egos in Spenser's Boston. The theme of hard, violent men in conflict over love and their own codes of honor is standard Parker fare, but no one does it better. --Wes Lukowsky

This retelling of the famous rivalry between Wyatt Earp and the cowboys is a minimalist's dream, but it doesn't offer much in the way of innovation. Begley has the kind of folksy, but literate, head-scratching charm the farm boy who turns out to be smarter than he looks that would seem to make him a natural choice to read Parker's shot at adding something new to the OK Corral legend. And Begley does a valiant job of bringing Parker's deliberately spare prose and discreet dialogue to life. But other actors' visions of Earp are more convincing (such as Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine and Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell in Wyatt Earp and Tombstone). It's not that this production is particularly flawed, but too many actors have played Earp in myriad versions of the same story for there to be much that's original or even interestingly retro in the Begley variation. On the other hand, if there are any fans of Parker's most famous creation (Boston PI Spenser) who don't know about the Earps, this audiobook could open their eyes. Based on the Putnam hardcover. (Nov. 2001) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Parker heads west to meet Wyatt Earp. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

It’s those lead-slinging Earps—revisited and revitalized—strapping it on again in Parker’s first western. Somewhat revamped, too, inasmuch as Wyatt and Virge, facing the Clantons at the world’s most famous corral, talk a lot like Spenser and Hawk (Potshot, p. 209, etc.). But how bad is that, pardner? The time is 1879, and the Brothers Earp—Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan—find themselves cash poor and in need of greener pastures. So, womenfolk in tow, they abandon Dodge for Tombstone (Arizona), where they have reason to believe the action is. They’re right, but it comes with complications, most of them embodied in the lissome form of showgirl Josie Marcus. As any Earp scholar can tell you, she’s Wyatt’s “dark lady.” Having once caught her act in that cowboy favorite “Pinafore on Wheels,” he’s completely smitten, hopelessly aware that wherever she goes, he goes. (“We have to be together,” he tells her.) At the moment, however, she belongs to silky-smooth, double-dealing Sheriff Johnny Behan—though not for long. And thereby hangs most of Parker’s tale. Because in this version, Behan bereft becomes Iago-like in his reptilian conniving. It’s Behan who fills Ike Clanton’s microbrain full of fantasies, among them the delusion that the Clantons can match up with the Earps. It’s Behan who manipulates Tombstone’s cowboys into believing the Earps are black-hearted carpetbaggers, greedy and ambitious at their expense. Behan wants Josie back no matter the cost. Wyatt intends to keep her no matter the cost. At the fateful OK, then, when the guns play their rhapsody and men fall, perhaps only Behan and Wyatt truly grasp the iron logic of cause and effect. Goes on a bit after that climactic showdown, which is probably a mistake. But for the most part the action bristles, the talk is excellent, and the characters hold you: a much better than OK ride.