Its Finished

Got done reading book #11, Valediction, this evening, thereby completing my quest to read every one of Robert Parker’s Spenser novels. I’ve got all 34 books on a shelf and maybe in a couple years I’ll read them through in order, instead of randomly like this time. It was never required, but it might make some of the references fit together better.

This book didn’t have any crime buster secrets, but it did have one of Spenser’s Laws of Dining:

In high restaurants the food never lives up to the view.

The second to last book I read, A Savage Place, did have a Dick Tracy Crime-Stopper reference:

I had a full file of Dick Tracy crime-stoppers at home, but none of them that I could remember covered this. What would Allan Pinkerton do? What would I tell the Bel-Air Patrol if they put the arm on me here in the bushes? My palms felt a little sweaty. I squinted a little to blur things and took a quick peek. They were still at it. Private eye was one thing, Peeping Tom was another. I headed for the car.

Seeing as no specific rule is mentioned it didn’t make the cut.

In case you missed it the FRS didn’t lose to the Indians in game seven of the ALCS, like I expected, so they are on to the World Series (or more appropriately the MLB Championship Series.) They now get the privilege of playing the Colorado Rockies of the National League who have won 20 of their last 21 games and swept through both of their playoffs series. I hope Mark is right in that if the Rockies ever lose one, they’ll collapse and not win another until next year some time and that the FRS can win the first game on Wednesday to start that slide.