From Publishers Weekly
The prolific, Edgar Awardwinning Block has written many mysteries, most in assorted series with colorful protagonists. Featured here is Matt Scudder in his follow-up appearance to Eight Million Ways to Die. Scudder is a former New York cop, now an unlicensed private detective who does favors for friends. Divorced from his wife, who lives with their sons on Long Island, Scudder rooms in a West Side hotel. His real home, however, is any one of three or four local bars, and his family are their owners, staff and habitues. In the summer of 1975, Matt is busy with assorted favors. Tommie Tillary, an investment salesman in flashy clothes, whose wife has been murdered in Bay Ridge, needs to be cleared of suspicion. The real booksas opposed to those shown to the IRSstolen from Skip Devoe's bar must be ransomed, and the masked gunmen who robbed the Morrisey brothers' after-hours place have to be identified. Drinking steadily all summer, Scudder accomplishes all of the above, his intuition, doggedness and respect for a higher law sputtering through the alcoholic haze. Block is an accomplished storyteller, and Matt Scudder is a fine example of hero as human being. Mystery Guild selection. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Washington Post
"Chilling"


San Francisco Chronicle
"Ambitious and intense...A compelling and memorable novel."


Book Description
In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he'll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving.


Download Description
These are dark days for Matthew Scudder. In a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing his ginmill cronies "favors" for pay. But when three such assignments flow together in disturbing and dangerous ways, he'll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving.


About the Author
A Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Lawrence Block is a four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. The author of more than fifty books and numerous short stories, he is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

These were the dark days for Matthew Scudder. An ex-New York cop, he had drowned his career in booze. Now he was drinking away his life in a succession of seedy establishments that opened early and closed late, reduced to doing paid "favors" for the cronies who gathered with him to worship the bottle.

Now, in a sad and lonely place like so many before it, opportunity comes knocking — a chance to help the ginmil's owner recover his stolen doctored financial records; a chance to help out a drinking buddy accused of murdering his wife. But when cases flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways — like the nightmare images in a drunkard's delirium — it's time for Scudder to change his priorities: to staying sober...and staying alive.

Author Biography:

Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and a multiple winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Maltese Falcon awards. His fifty-plus books include the Matthew Scudder novels, the most recent being the critically acclaimed Everybody Dies, and the New York Times bestseller Hit Man. Mr. Block is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling.

FROM THE CRITICS

Chicago Tribune

One of the best mysteries ever written. As taut and biting as a garrotting wire.

Washington Post

Chilling.

San Francisco Chronicle

Ambitious and intense...A compelling and memorable novel.

Publishers Weekly