IRONHORSE by Robert Knott (as Robert B. Parker) - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK
See all titles by Robert B. Parker.
For years, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have ridden roughshod over rabble-rousers and gun hands in troubled towns like Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone. Now, newly appointed as Territorial Marshalls, they find themselves traveling by train through the Indian Territories. Their first marshaling duty starts out as a simple mission to escort Mexican prisoners to the border, but when the Governor of Texas, his wife and daughters climb aboard with their bodyguards and $500,000 in tow, their journey suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.
The problem is Bloody Bob Brandice. He and Virgil have had it out before, an encounter that left Brandice face-down in the street with two .44 slugs lodged in him. Now, twelve years later on a night train struggling uphill in a thunderstorm, Brandice is back – and he’s not alone. Cole and Hitch find themselves in the midst of a heist with a horde of very bad men, two beautiful young hostages, and a man with a vendetta he’s determined to carry out.
Parker wrote 68 mystery and western novels before he died in 2010, and VJ Books was happy to provide signed copies of his many novels. Parker was the first author to sign for us years ago and he continued to do so right up to the end. Several talented writers have taken up some of Parker's favorite characters, and we are pleased that Ace Atkins and Michael Brandman allow us to offer signed copies of those books that they have written. When we learned that screenwriter Robert Knott had been chosen to continue the Hitch and Cole series Virginia reached out to him to sign for us. He agreed and we are able to continue to offer Parker’s popular gritty westerns featuring his two signature western characters: lawmen-for-hire Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. Robert Knott follows Parker’s sharp style and careful blend of action, suspense, and dialogue, producing a real hayburner with Virgil and Everett who now territorial U.S. marshals riding a train through the Indian Territories. When a white outlaw gang holds up a train, bullets fly, bodies drop, and female hostages are taken. The steely-eyed, cold-blooded marshals vow to save everyone and “rid this train of these thieves.” After a drawn-out gun battle, the few surviving robbers escape with the hostages but not what they were really after. Virgil, Everett, a steady town constable, and a deadly Choctaw pursue the gang, leading to a showdown in an abandoned mining camp. Knott sticks to Parker’s portrayals of Virgil and Everett as hard-boiled, badge-toting gunmen whose simple solution to every problem is to shoot everybody in sight.