Rating: 
Summary: Parker's Name is Only Item of Interest in this Book
Review: Clearly, someone wagered Parker that he couldn't write another account of OK Corral gunfight AND sell it.The tipoff on this book is Parker's name at 5 times the size of the book title AND Parker's name is at top while the title is well at bottom of the cover. Do not buy this book; if you have to read it, get it from the local library. There is nothing of interest, nothing in the characters, nothing for a plot that you cannot discern in first
three pages. Finally, this book fails the Dan Jenkins first page test.
Rating: 
Summary: Writer's gotta write what a writer's gotta write
Review: "I write," said Parker. "I know," said Smith. "That's the way it is," said Parker. "You're a writer, you write. You write, sometimes you finish a book. You finish a book, sometimes it gets published." "Published don't mean it's good," said Smith. There was no expression on Parker's face. It seemed as if part of him always lived in some quiet, distant place. He was always holding something back. "Didn't say you had to like it," said Parker. "Don't, much," said Smith. "Can't be helped," said Parker. "No," said Smith. "Guess it can't."
Rating: 
Summary: Much Better Than Your Average Western History Novel
Review: This was a really good book. I have read a lot of books on Wyatt Earp and his travails in Tombstone. It is factually quite accurate, and this talented writer adds a great human touch by injecting into the background of his story both the use of the Josie romance (as a real motive for the Behen efforts to get Wyatt using the cowboys) and by using newpaper clippings of other world events that were going on at the same time in the world. And it will be hard to forget his almost poetic reporting of that shootout near Fremont Street on that cold October day. Robert Parker is always great at character studies and this is no exception. Virgil, Doc, Morgan, Ike, Curly Bill, Ringo, and even Bat and Allie get the bright light shone in their direction. It begins with Dodge City and ends immediately after the Vendetta Ride. Marvelous book.
Rating:
Summary: A western with a difference.
Review: Robert B. Parker's "Gunman's Rhapsody" is more than a good read. After reading the book, you are educated to the people and events surrounding the gunfight at the OK corral. Most of the scenes in the book are based in fact. The author fills in the details and dialogue with an understanding of the real west.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Robert Parker
Review: I will read anything Robert Parker writes but this was a delightful turn into a new genre. Parker has spent virtually his entire career writing mysteries about Boston and New England. In one break, years ago, he wrote Love and Glory, a heart wrenching novel about love, alcoholism, pain and endurance and one of the most moving novels I have ever read. Now he has moved in a totally different direction. Gunman's Rhapsody is a western and a love story. The love story is a little stilted but still powerful. The western is about one of the genuine historic moments in American history, Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the OK Corral. This is a practical no nonsense purposeful Earp who cautiously but determinedly gets his own way. It argues in essence that Wyatt fell for a woman who was living with Sheriff Behan and in stealing her he created a bitter enemy and the rest was history. The tale is well told, interesting both as a look at the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday and interesting as an imagining of what motivates men to kill and die in situations that on the surface seem irrational but under the surface go to the core of being human. This is a different Robert Parker but he is still well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: This pains me, but....
Review: I GENUINELY hate writing this, as I'm a huge fan of Parker's work, but I'm also honest, so here goes... I've seldom been so disappointed in a book in my life. I've the feeling that Parker was going for a kind of "spare" feel to his prose in GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY, but all he managed was to make it feel thin, instead. And this could have been so much more. Is this evidence that Parker is trying to churn out books, rather than take the neccesary time to give us wonderful works like A CATSKILL EAGLE, or ALL OUR YESTERDAYS? I dunno, but if so, please slow down!
Rating:
Summary: The Earp Brothers vs. The World
Review: That is exactly the impression you'll get after reading this book. The Earps are like the Musketeers (you know, "all for one and one for all"). The type of loyalty presented between the brothers will leave you nothing short of incredulous. Enough about that....just an interesting theme within. The book.....if you've seen "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp," you know the storyline. Regardless that, READ THE BOOK. Parker, in his storytelling genius, brings the reader inside Wyatt's head (sometimes a strange place to be). You learn of the stoicism, fearlessness, total control and, you'll even see the romantic in Wyatt. To read this book is to understand Wyatt. For that, Parker has done fans of Westerns a favor. Lets face it, Kirk Russell and Kevin Costner is not what I have in mind when I think of Wyatt Earp (although both actors played excellent parts). This book only received 4 stars if for no other reason than the public, including the reading public, has been inundated with Wyatt and his brothers. Parker does a wonderful job with the story as he does with most of his offerings. Forget those that will tell you that its JUST a regurgitation of the movie. They didn't READ the book. They just scanned it. READ it, you'll KNOW Wyatt Earp.
Rating:
Summary: Not Worth the Trouble to Read
Review: I have been a Robert Parker fan for years, and have enjoyed almost every book he has written. So, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of "Gunman's Rhapsody"...and I ended up sorely disappointed. I have been to Tombstone, read a number of books about the town and it's famous citizens and have always been interested in the full story behaind the incidents there that made the town famous. This did little to shed any new light on an old subject. And, I am fearful that people will read this and take it for actual history, which of course, it isn't...it's a novel. In addition, either Robert Parker based Wyatt Earp on Spenser or Spenser was based on Wyatt Earp. I tend to believe the former. Either way, the dialouge is so similar to a Spenser novel that I felt, at times, that I was reading the latest Spenser novel. I guess Parker has been writing the Spenser books so long he has forgotten what real dialouge is like. There is one good point to the book. It makes the story so easy to follow that anyone who wants to know about the story of the Earps and Tombstone can read this and get the basic story fairly quickly without having to read through some of the drier history books.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing book
Review: I was thoroughly disappointed with this lazy, "sound bite" book. It takes a story re-told hundreds of time in print and film, one ripe for a new twist or two, and adds absolutely nothing. In fact, it appears that Mr. Parker just watched the movie Tombstone and tried to abbreviate the story. If this book were made into a movie it would last all of 30 minutes including commercials. Rare is the case that a book has underdeveloped characters when compared to a movie but in this instance that is truly the case. And what was with the bizarre gray boxed "Chronicles" intermittently sprinkled throughout the book? They were inane. I especially enjoyed this Chronicle on page 242: "Base Ball Grounds, Friday Oct. 27th Bostons vs. Dr. Pope's Picked Nine." That's it! It is ludicrous. Save your money and rent Tombstone, even though it is historically inaccurate also, at least it is entertaining. This book is not. Mr. Parker sure disappointed his legion of fans with this languidly written "book."
Rating:
Summary: Please get over Spenser, people!!
Review: Stop comparing this book to the Spenser series! Looking at it objectively, I was mesmerized by the lean, spare prose and the affecting simplicity of the writing. It's not meant to be a witty, wisecracking, buddy book a la Spenser. I can't believe the negative reviews! Expand your horizons, folks. I read a review that negatively critiqued the OK Corral scene as being too lightly emphasized. I was impressed with the decision to make this event less "historical." For the Earps & Doc it seemed to be just another shoot out. What a great direction to take. I'm a huge fan of the Spenser series, and think his Sunny Randall and Jake Stone books have also been very good. But, I've got to say that Gunman's Rhapsody is his best.
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