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Title: In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block ISBN: 0-380-76362-1 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Scudder Heads Towards Oblivion
Comment: In this, the 3rd book in the series, Matt Scudder is asked for help by a New York copy who believes a prostitute is setting him up. Before he can make too many inroads into the case, the prostitute is dead and the policeman is arrested on suspicion of being responsible. Something doesn't ring true to Scudder, particularly when he finds out the cop has been providing information to Internal Affairs, putting him on the out with his fellow officers.
This is one of the darker books in the Matt Scudder series with Matt sinking into a growing depression and succumbing to the bottle with increasing regularity. Although sinking heavily into alcoholism in this book, he still manages to hold it all together enough to perform his job admirably well.
Scudder is a very interesting character, but he is also defined by the actions that he can't explain, even to himself. A perfect example of this is his habit of tithing. He admits that he is in no way religious, yet every time he is paid, he tithes ten per cent of his earnings to the nearest church. The amusing part is that Scudder can't explain why he does it and reacts to it with head-shaking bemusement.
This is a typical hardboiled mystery, sometimes despairingly so, featuring a character who grows more fascinating and enigmatic the more we find out about him.
Rating: 2
Summary: The finale that passes you by...
Comment: This is a great Matt Scudder book, until the end goes flying right by you and you find yourself turning the book sideways and shaking it to let the rest fall out, only to soon realize that there is no more, you didn't miss it...it just wasn't in there to begin with. Ok, Lawrence, I've been really very generous when reviewing your other Matt Scudder novels because they were in fact very good, even though a few had not-so-worthy endings (quick, dull, and out of left field), but I'm through being Mr. Nice Guy for you. The Scudder series is excellent! Don't waste a perfectly good novel by tacking on an ending that is nothing close to spectacular, extraordinary, or even halfway interesting! This isn't the first Scudder novel this has happened in, but it isn't going to escape any more of my reviews. Good book, good story, horrible ending that wrapped up in less than a chapter and never came to a climax.
Rating: 4
Summary: The series is starting to take off
Comment: For for the first time in the Matt Scudder series -- now three books long -- the word "alcoholic" rears its ugly head; it's not uttered by Matt, but suggested by a questioning friend. And Matt is full of denial: he can stop anytime he wants, he doesn't drink that much, it doesn't interfere with his capabilities. But, during the solving of this mystery, Matt's seldom far from his last or next drink, he's already suffering blackouts, and he made several tactical, and possibly deadly, errors because of a brain fogged by burbon and coffee. But in between his repeated toss-backs, we have another tight little mystery: This time his client is a cop on the take who gets too greedy and is set up to appear to have killed a hooker. And we get to meet some original and intriguing characters: like Doug Furhman, a character that would be perfect for the acting talents of the late Elisha Cook, Jr., and Kenny the owner of Sinthia's, a gay Village bar. Elaine, the call girl, is back from the first book with a more substantial role in this tale. And there's the client's wife with whom Matt has fling, thankfully alluded to, not given a full desription by Block. And Matt keeps the affair going by feeding her the lines she wants to hear, or could it be that he is so desperately lonely that he really means them and it is her that is stringing his emotions along? It's a dirty big city, but I'm glad Matt lives there and Lawrence Block takes us along with him on his adventures.
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Title: Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block ISBN: 0380763656 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block ISBN: 0380715740 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block ISBN: 038076363X Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Out on the Cutting Edge: A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel by Lawrence Block ISBN: 0380709937 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 03 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Eight Million Ways To Die by Lawrence Block ISBN: 0380715732 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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