::READERS REVIEWS::

Matt Scudder's Debut - This short novel introduces Matt Scudder, a former cop who's now working as an unlicensed private investigator. Scudder's a mess. He's an alcoholic with women issues. In this one he investigates the murder of a young woman. Scudder untangles a messy web, but the plot is not terribly convincing. Still, Block's writing style is, as always, admirable.

Watch out for printing error in this edition. - There isn't a lot I can add to other customer reviews of this novel. It's not Block at his best, but enjoyable enough--although if you haven't figured out the 'surprise' finish by the end of chapter seven you're not paying attention!

My main reason for posting is to draw attention to a major printing error in the mass-market paperback edition. Page 258, smack in the middle of chapter sixteen, is completely blank in my copy (it would happen right at the climax!). So be sure to check your copy for this defect as soon as you receive it.

But the Title gives the Solution away ! ! - Enjoyable tale, well told. But Dear Publishers, CHANGE THE TITLE ! !

Lighting a Candle for Block's PI, Matt Scudder: The First Book - One of the best things about what I seem to be doing (reading a lot of crime novels in an attempt to determine where my books are going to be placed within the wider pantheon of crime literature) is that there is just so much out there. Some of these writers, like Block, are so big, they transcend the genre. That is, I knew the name "Lawrence Block" before I even picked up the very first Hard Case Crime story ever published, Block's Grifter's Game. Since then, I have learned that Block is most famous for two creations, Bernie Rhodenbarr (AKA "The Bulgar") and the Matt Scudder novels. Being a stickler for reading these series characters from the beginning, I recently found the first books from each of these series. Don't know why but I read Scudder first.

We meet Scudder, where else, in a bar, sitting opposite a client. Scudder is not a licensed PI; instead, he does 'favors' for people. And, in the best tradition of old-school PI novels, Block gets right to the point. A bereaved father wants Scudder to learn about and report on the last days of his daughter's life. Specifically, he blames himself for not reaching out to her and he wants to know if what the papers have printed about her--that she's a prostitute--are true. Scudder agrees and takes the man's money.

The first thing that jarred me about this character--and immediately gave him depth--was that Scudder tithed 10% of his fee. Crime fiction that I am familiar with tends to be somewhat secular. I know there are PI series out there with priests and whatnot; I just haven't read them. And for a PI, down on his luck, divorced, with two boys he seems not to know what to do with, semi-alcoholic, who lives in a hotel, to give up 10% of his hard-earned cash is something remarkable. And he does it more than once. It's one of the neatest aspects of Scudder, that he knows there is a God and that he, Scudder, strayed though he is, is one of the sheep.

On the cover of nearly every copy of a Block book, invariably, there is a quote about Block's prose. I got the one from Martin Cruz Smith who considers Block to be a direct descendant of James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett. I haven't read Cain yet...but he's dead on with the Hammett reference. Block uses nice and tidy prose. There is no fat. My copy of the novel is 186 pages and seventeen chapters. But, considering Chapter 17 is only three pages long, Block tells his entire story in sixteen chapters and 183 pages. My current novel is on chapter 18 and I'm on page 125. Boy, do I envy Block's writing. To cite the last sentence of the Martin Cruz Smith quote, "He's that good."

Again, not knowing anything about Scudder, the second jarring thing he did came after this sentence: "I went back to Armstrong's, but it was the wrong place for the mood I was in." There had not been hardly any violence in the novel up to that point (p. 127) and I honestly didn't see what was coming. It jarred me. In fact, I put a sticky note on that page so I could quickly return to that place in the book. I expected it to be important and it was. Going back to the tithing aspect of his character, I couldn't help but see an angelic--not the good kind--coming out in Scudder's actions.

In my ongoing education in crime literature to date, I have met a lot of one-time characters: Angel Dare, Swede Nelson, Joe Hope, Cay Morgan, Jack Stang. Even Nick and Nora Charles, in literature, are one-time characters. Matt Scudder is the first ongoing character to whom I have been introduced. I want to taste a lot of different writers before I settle down and plow through an entire series. It is going to take a act of will not to buy the second book in the Scudder series tomorrow. He is intriguing. He is deep. He is, to appropriate the above quote and apply it to Scudder, that good.(excerpted from scottdparker.blogspot.com)

The First Matt Scudder Mystery - I had read several of Lawrence Block's books and found the writing to be excellent, so I looked forward to reading the first (copyright 1976) of the Matt Scudder series. I was not disappointed. In Scudder, Block gives us a worn, lonely man, retired from the New York City police force, and finding consolation in alcohol. Gritty describes the man and the streets of New York that he haunts. Scudder picks up money doing investigative work, and this is the kernel of the story. Cale Hanniford hires Scudder to find why his daughter was murdered by the man that shared her apartment, a man that then hanged himself in his jail cell. As Scudder systematically peels away layer after layer of mystery surrounding the murder, we find that the crime was completely different from the initial picture. The slow, deliberate work of Scudder has a realistic feel that you don't get in many mysteries. Block is also a master at describing the streets and bars and characters in New York. The story should keep you fascinated to the end.