Mark asked:
"BTW, Since you are so anal to only read a series in order,
how could you have not read the Grofield books when they so
interlock with the early Parker books?"
Fair question. I was not always quite so anal about it. In
fact, first reading the Parker series out of order had a lot
to do with my developing my anal habit in this area. The
first Parker book I read had a big #1 on it. However,
Slayground was hardly the first in the series, just the first
to be reprinted in Berkley Medallion's The Violent World of
Parker. Point Blank was #2 and it went on from there in a
haphazard order for a few books. I was hooked on the series
and looked for more and read them as I found them. I finally
completed the series, which took quite some time in those
preinternet days, and I reread them all in order. I was
really struck by how the series was built, how the books
flowed from one another, especially the first four. That
dividend made me try to read all series in order (not that
all series depend or benefit from this).
However, as hard to find as the Parkers were, the Grofields
were even harder. In fact, the only one I had at that time
was the first, The Damsel. I picked up the other three when
Foul Play Press later reprinted all four, but I still haven't
gotten around to reading them.
Mark
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