Potshot by Robert B. Parker

There was TV show a while back called Spenser: For Hire about a private investigator in Boston. My wife and I used to watch it regularly. He had a sidekick called Hawk, big black ominous fellow who didn't say much, but whose words carried weight. He was like the main reason for watching the show. Spenser was like the main story, but that was all like setup for Hawk who would appear briefly and utter one line that would just make the whole show. I may be overstating it a bit. Eventually someone made a whole show just about Hawk. It fell flat. It died after one season.

Anyway, the TV show was based on a series of books by Mr. Parker. I've read a couple of them and they are enjoyable. I read Potshot in a day. There were a couple of things that stood out. One was a comment about watching a wild animal move and how it was almost physically enjoyable. Another was Hawk's comments about donuts while they are waiting for the bad guys to show up, it was just the best. The last was a brief exchange at an after-action breakfast. One of the bright young toughs asks why they didn't go after the bad guys in their hideout instead of waiting for them to attack. If we had gone in after them, he argues, it would have had the same result, but with a lot less risk to ourselves, and we could have been done days earlier.

Hawk replies that, to Spenser, it is not just that the job gets done, but how it gets done that makes a difference. I was a bit flummoxed by this. Could these guys really not see the difference? I think this may be part of my trouble in dealing with people. I see things and think the situation is obvious, other people see the same situation and see something completely different. So maybe they really couldn't see what was obvious to Spenser, and me. Maybe some people just don't see the implications, or possible consequences of their actions. They might if they thought about it, but that would require linear thinking, something we avoid if we can.