Product Description
Originally published in 1914.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
Bad cop Jerry Broadfield didn't make any friends on the force when he volunteered to squeal to an ambitious d.a. about police corruption. Now he'saccused of murdering a call girl. Matthew Scudder doesn't think Broadfield's a killer, but the cops aren't about to help the unlicensed p.i. prove it -- and they may do a lot worse than just get in his way.

Customer Reviews (5)

Matt Scudder Solves Another One
Lawrence Block is an excellent writer, and he is at his best with the grim streets of New York and bleak lives of many of its inhabitants. Matt Scudder is an ex-cop who quit the force after one of his shots went astray and killed a little girl. Now, he works as an investigator. In this story, Jerry Broadfield, a police officer, has blown the whistle on his fellow cops. Immediately, a prostitute charges him with extortion. He hires Scudder to investigate, but before Scudder can do much, the prostitute ends up dead in Broadfield's apartment. Scudder suspects a frame up, but proving it is difficult. If not Broadfield, who murdered the prostitute? And why did Broadfield turn against his fellow officers? Block gives us the clues as Scudder unravels the case while fighting a losing battle against becoming an alcoholic. The story moves fairly quickly and should keep your interest to the end.

Scudder Heads Towards Oblivion
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.

The series is starting to take off
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.

A short but engaging early Scudder novel
Lawrence Block's early Matthew Scudder novels are considerably shorter and less complex than later entries in the series.Scudder was still drinking during this time period and here he makes his first acknowledgement that it might be getting out of control.The plot is intriguing, a dirty cop begins cooperating with an anti-corruption probe and is framed for murder.Scudder must answer two questions who did the frame up and why did the cop suddenly decide to become a rat? "In the Midst of Death" is one of the bleaker entires in the Scudder series both in terms of its outcome and for what happens in Scudder's personal life.It is not an essential entry in the series, but it is a good one.

Pretty good, but not up to Block's normal high standard.
With this book, the third in the Matthew Scudder series, Scudder is hired by a crooked cop named Jerry Broadfield, who decides to grab a bit of the limelight by exposing corruption in the police department. Problem: ahooker Broadfield was seeing turns up dead in his apartment.The policewon't do much to investigate, of course, because Broadfield betrayed thebadge.That leaves Scudder to go after the killer.

It's a good book, butit doesn't measure up to the high standards set by other volumes in theseries.Part of this is because there's not enough focus on thecharacters.Seems strange to type that about Lawrence Block, who normallywrites great characters.This time around it feels like he wasn't surewhere he wanted to go with the series, so Matt is the same at the end ofthe book as he was at the beginning.He's simply there to go through themotions and solve the crime.

However, even on Block's worst day, he'sbetter than most writers on their best day.So the book will stillentertain you and it's worth reading.Just don't expect to be blown awaythis time. ... Read more

Product Description

Small-time stoolie, Jake " The Spinner" Jablon, made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money -- and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in.And what's worse, no one cares -- except Matthew Scudder.The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscientious avenging angel. But he's willing to risk his own life and limb to confront Spinner's most murderously aggressive marks. A job's a job after all -- and Scudder's been paid to find a killer -- by the victim...in advance.

Customer Reviews (7)

Good Murder Mystery in the Scudder Series
This is a good Scudder murder mystery.Scudder searches for a blackmail victim who murdered his friend.Who can this be?Is it the pedophile who hopes to be the next governor of New York; the society lady with a history of hooking and starring in porno flicks; the architect who paid off a judge to get his daughter exonerated from adrunken hit and run accident that resulted in a child's death?

Naturally, the killer decides that suicide's next.Block and Scudder never let the reader down if a good hard-boiled mystery is your cup of tea.

Lawrence Block does it again
Time to Murder and Create is another attention holding Matt Scudder mystery.I have read nearly all of them and do not look forward to the day I run out of new ones to read.

Pick A Murderer
A small-time hood and grass who was an acquaintance of Matt Scudder's during his days as a cop comes calling when he fears for his life. The man, known as `The Spinner' was stringing along 3 different blackmail victims, but became aware that one of them was trying to kill him. Unfortunately, he doesn't know which one. He wants Scudder to hold onto a package for him that is to be opened in the event of his death, which is all too inevitable.

Naturally enough, Scudder accepts and then honours his agreement to find out who the murderer is. In order to flush out The Spinner's murderer, Matt decides to confront each of the people being blackmailed with the news that they're still not off the hook in the hope that one of them will blink. The obvious downside to this plan is that he would be making himself a target which, if you forget about the subsequent 13 Matt Scudder books for a moment, makes for some very tense and exciting reading.

This is quite a fast-paced mystery that gives us multiple suspects to choose from with the wrong choice possibly proving fatal. Scudder is still an introspective soul who seems to view the world and his place in it with bemusement. Lawrence Block doesn't waste a word in his narrative which serves to move things along nicely.

It's another compelling entry in a series that I think fans of hardboiled crime books would love.

Bumbling along
The second in this series of 14 mysteries, soon to be 15, finds our unlikely hero Matthew Scudder further along on his trek to alcoholism, mixed up in unsavory mahem, and trying to get by day to day. It's an interesting case: A blackmailer posthumously hires Matt to determine which of his three pidgeons killed him. So the quasi-detective sets himself up as the blackmailer's replacement to entice the murderer to strike at him so he can solve the case. Matthew, because his mind is becoming benumbed by booze or maybe he just isn't a very good detective, bumbles this case every step of the way, and comes to a less than satisfactory conclusion -- the type of ending only Block has the nerve to create. It's book noir at a higher level. The dialogue is terrific and true, the settings in Manhattan are recorded with exactness, it's a fine tale that kept me reading well into the night. One aspect I especially appreciated, Block didn't seem to feel he needed gratuitous foul language in this second in the series as he did in the first. The book is a great example of why the series is so popular.

Not bad early Scudder with a disturbing flaw
"Time to Murder and Create" is the second novel in the Matthew Scudder series.Like many of the earlier Scudder tales, it is relatively short and not a greatly complex story.The plotline is clever; an extortionist gets a premonition of his own murder and hires Scudder in advance to investigate if anything happens to him.The story is well told, and this still being Scudder's drinking period, it is full of plenty of despair and loneliness.One major flaw exists however.One of the people the extortionist is blackmailing is politically connected figure who has sex with underage boys.Scudder's lack of outrage at the man's activity leads to a less than approriate conclusion of the story.If this had been Andrew Vachss' Burke, the pedophile would have gotten his just desserts.Overall, this is a fairly conventional mystery by Block standards.But it does have its moments. ... Read more

Product Description
The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer -- a minister's son -- hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's fatherhas come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

Customer Reviews (18)

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. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a city that seduces dreamers...then eats their dreams.Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best -- and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love -- and death -- in the worst possible places.

Customer Reviews (7)

Another Great Addition to the Matt Scudder Series
This is another very good mystery in the Matt Scudder series.I can't help liking Matt and the way his daily struggles with alcoholism are portrayed.I find him touching and heroic.His relationship with AA is poignant as well.He is a man who gives money to AA to make up for his relapses but then tries like hell to get back on the wagon.The characterizations are very good and the mystery keeps the reader turning pages.

MOCUS means mixed-up, confused, and uncentered
In NYC there are the Lambs, the Friars, and the Players.Maurice Jenkins-Lloyd, a member of one of the organizations and known to Matt Scudder through their shared fate of alcoholism, died of a ruptured esophagus.At this stage Scudder attends AA and has handed in his police badge and functions as an unlicensed PI.He is looking for Paula Hoeldtke.

Paula is from Muncie, Indiana.She attended Ball State, majoring in theater.The theater was an excuse for her to go to NYC.Unfortunately she has been missing for more than two months and her father has contacted Scudder to try to solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Joe Durkin, Scudder's police contact, calls the hospitals for him.It is discovered that Paula moved out of her residence without telling the landlady.It seems that Paula had not held membership in any of the unions or clubs for actors, but by fine-combing the two theater programs featuring her, Scudder develops some leads to pursue in the search.

Paula's last place of employment had been the Druid's Castle, an English-style pub.When a man from AA, Eddie dies, Matt Scudder arranges to meet one of the local tough guys, Mick Ballou.He finds out that Eddie had been friends with Mick's brother Dennis, a victim of the War in Vietnam.

Solving the mystery reveals remarkably sad stories to Scudder as he traces the links between Paula'sand Eddie's disastrous ends.

Once Again................BLOWN AWAY
Once again Lawrence Block has managed to blow me away with another fantastic Matt Scudder book. This one is about a guy who is looking for his daughter, who went off to New York to try and find fame. He hires Scudder to find his missing daughter, but the only problem is, there arent many leads. He searches and goes through all the motions and has stumbling blocks in his way, but manages to get around them. I wont tell you the rest, because I dont want to ruin the book for you, but I will just say this. THE ENDING WILL SHOCK YOU!!!!!

Scudder's first sober case
"Out on the Cutting Edge" follows the two best novels in the Matthew Scudder series, "8 Million Ways to Die" and "When the Sacred Ginmill Closes."It is also the first novel in which Scudder conducts a case (in this instance two cases) while not in an alcoholic stupor.We catch up with Scudder a few years after he joined AA.He has a sponser and has managed to recover control of his life.His day to day existence, meanwhile, hasn't changed much.He still lives in a residential hotel and still conducts cases off the books as "favors" for friends.

The two cases are interesting.One is for pay; a family wants to know the whereabouts of their missing daughter.One is personal; an AA companion apparently commits suicide just before he is ready to confess his sins to Scudder.Both take Scuder in some unlikely directions and the payoff is typically messy.Meanwhile, author Lawrence Block introduces one his most interesting side characters to the series, the Irish gangster Mickey Ballou.Overall, this is a solid Scudder novel that is not quite on par with the best of the series.But any Scudder novel makes for excellent reading.

Another top-notch Scudder book.
Matt Scudder is dealing with the day-in, day-out struggle to stay sober in the Big Apple.He has a case he doesn't have much hope of solving and he's got an AA acquaintance who wants Matt to sponsor him.Eddie Dunphy is asmall-time crook, sober for a little over half a year.He has something hereally wants to tell Matt, but before he gets a chance, he's found dead inhis apartment--an apparent suicide.

It's an open and shut case, but Mattis obsessed with finding out whether or not Eddie died sober.Dead isdead, but if he stayed sober he won the war.Of course, he finds out Eddiewas murdered and he also gets a lead on his original case just when he wasready to give up on it.

This book introduces a recurring character in theseries:Mickey Ballou, known as the Butcher Boy.Mickey has a reputation. Folks believe he killed a man and carried the guy's head around in abowling bag for a week, showing it off so people would know not to crosshim.

The characters all grow and change over the course of the book. This is a terrific novel and a nice addition to the Scudder series. ... Read more