Series: Matthew Scudder
by Author Lawrence Block
Time to Murder and Create (1999)
Matthew Scudder, assisted by larger and larger doses of bourbon & coffee, investigates the brutal murder of a blackmailer known as the Spinner. The prime suspects are the Spinner’s three cash cows, including: 1. A former hooker/porn star turned high society wife; 2. A wealthy father of a reckless...
Everybody Dies (1999)
When, in my post on the previous entry in Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series, I wrote that it marked a return to form, I was expecting the remaining novels to be solid and mostly unadventurous, with the series settling into a comfortable groove that it would run along in until it eventually ...
Even the Wicked (2000)
I've said several times here now that I believe Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series to be the best PI series ever written. Some of the books individually stand with any of the classics produced by people like Raymond Chandler et al., but Block has produced far more books in this series (sixte...
A Ticket to the Boneyard (2000)
Lawrence Block knows what he's doing and he does it well. This is a worthy addition to the Matthew Scudder series. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic, ex-cop who lives in a low-rent residential hotel and earns his living as an unlicensed private investigator. A Ticket to the Boneyard is the 8th L...
The Devil Knows You're Dead (1999)
A large part of the appeal of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series has always (or at least from about the third novel onwards) been to follow the fate of its protagonist, his trying to survive without a regular job, his trying to come to terms with his past as a police officer, and chiefly his...
All the Flowers Are Dying (2006)
This, the sixteenth Matthew Scudder novel, opens as a psychologist comes to a Virginia prison to visit a man condemned to death for the brutal murders of three young boys. Although the evidence against him was overwhelming, the prisoner continues to protest his innocence. The psychologist claims ...
In the Midst of Death (2002)
Hookers...blackmail...murder...police corruption...S&M fetishes...politics...and lots...and lots...and LOTS of Welcome to another scintillating episode in the 80-proof life of New York's favorite unlicensed private detective.Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series is about as close to a sure thi...
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (2015)
A few years ago it became somewhat fashionable for like a month or two to talk about how Stephen King deserved to win literary awards. Because I'm lazy I'm not going to look it up, but I think he was even given some kind of lifetime achievement award from the folks who provide us with the Nation...
The Sins of the Fathers (2015)
This was a paperback mystery when it was first published in 1976. The edition that I am reading is from 1992, is the first hardcover edition, and has an Introduction by Stephen King. In 1991 King published Needful Things. According the Wikipedia, “It is the first novel King wrote after his rehab...
Eight Million Ways to Die (2002)
A book about the mystery of a dead hooker becomes a book about Matt Scudder taking one day at a time, trying to save himself from alcohol. The prose was dry and matter-of-fact; the words of a police report detailing his movements and contacts. And yet the way they were arranged, their anti-drama ...
L'Ottavo Passo (2011)
A seasoned veteran of the world’s favourite private detective series will look at the title of this book and think that Mr Block has outdone himself. A quintessential Scudderism, the very name of the tome encapsulates everything the series has stood for, and everything the books have talked abou...