On Oct 30, 2008, at 9:25 AM, Marc Rikmenspoel wrote:
With no offense intended, I disagree about how enjoyable the books are when Croaker isn't really present. I think these books are fascinating in their own right for the reason that they serve an important function. A first person narrator has biases, and inevitably doesn't record "the truth" the way another person would. Seeing the company and its personalities through a variety of narrators sheds light on many of those characters.
I have to agree, as an argument I present "The Silver Spike". Croaker is barely on the map for most of this story and leaves it in the course.I don't think he ever even heard about the events. And it's one of Cook's very best. -- Michael Llaneza maserati@speakeasy.net