The pastor in question is Brother Percival, who has a rather right-right-right Southern Baptist take on how others should lead their lives but seems pretty comfortable with a group of elders/henchmen who stand around the sanctuary carrying weapons. Wow–that’s one way to make sure that everyone tithes! But Percival claims that the saloons need to close down so that everyone can be safe and sin-free, but he’s okay with the saloon of an ex-gunman named Pike, because it’s “cleaner.”
While Cole and Hitch are sorting through this conundrum, they also run sideways into a problem circling around a mysterious Indian who seems to be trying to draw individuals out of the town boundaries so that he can kill them. So while Cole and Hitch are “cleaning up” Allie, negotiating the finer lines between alcohol and religion, and staving off a potent violence from outside the town, their own questions and musings play out entertainingly through the pages of the book.
This reminds me to point out that the quick-witted dialogue and terse but descriptive prose is the work of the same man behind the Spenser series. While Westerns are a newer development for Robert Parker, it seems like he is now just warming to the subject. I’m okay with the Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone novels, but the Spenser novels seem to be packing more of a bang for their buck lately, and these Westerns are definitely getting better. I figure you’ve probably seen the movie version of Appaloosa if you’re going to, but the mental image of Harris and Mortensen only adds to the later novels.
It’s interesting to see the battle for power in the town and watch the manipulations of religion. Of course there’s corruption, and of course we get to see the kinds of things Parker must think about religion, but I’m also reminded of the story of the prophet Hosea and the way God commanded him to marry a prostitute. It was a narrative parable for the way that God kept taking Israel back when Israel was unfaithful–and the crazy thing is that Hosea loved his wife even more!
Which leads me to Cole and his love for the repentant but unrelenting floozy Allie: she’s always running around with other men, even serving as a whore to pay the bills at some point. Cole’s love for Allie is similar to God’s love for us (without the sex) because no matter how worthless or untrustworthy Allie proves to be, he remains resolute in Allie’s ability to change and his love for her. So while I might not appreciate how Parker represents religion in terms of Percival, who rises up like a snake in the wilderness and a false prophet in military clothing, I’m pretty amped by the unconditional love that Cole shows Allie.
Now that’s a sermon I could preach.
