Looking For Rachel Wallace

Responding to some primal urge buried deep in her DNA to eat protein to help awaken from winter’s hibernation and prepare for the arrival of spring, Donna decided she wanted beef for dinner. We didn’t have any in house, so off we went to Moe’s. She ordered a John Coctostan with beef and pinto beans. I opted for a Joey Bag of Doughnuts with chicken and black beans. We split a bottled water. Because we had a buy one, get one free coupon dinner was major cheap.

After my last Spenser book quote I realized that it might be better if you had a little background first, so here’s the setup for today’s excerpt. Spenser is hired to protect radical feminist and lesbian author Rachel Wallace. Linda Smith is the publisher’s media rep and Shirley is the morning news talk host. This takes place partway through the interview where Shirley is busy trying to goad Rachel into a sensational quote about her sexual inclination instead of actually discussing her latest book:

The guy crouching below the camera lens made a gesture with his hand, and Shirley said, “We’ll be right back with more interesting revelations from Rachel Wallace after this message.”

I whispered to Linda Smith, who stood in neat tweeds beside me, “Shirley doesn’t listen to the answers.”

A lot of them don’t,” Linda said. “They are busy looking ahead to the next question.”

“And she hasn’t read the book.”

Linda smiled and shook her head, “Almost none of them ever do. You can’t blame them. Sometimes you get several authors a week plus all the other stuff.”

“The pressure must be fearful,” I said. “To spend your working life never knowing what you are talking about.”