Early Matt Scudder story, where he's still drinking, still newishly split from wife. [return][return]Jerry Broadfield is working on police corruption when he gets arrested for murder when the body of a dead prostitute is found in his apartment. Matt is hired to help clear the situation up

This Scudder was a bit too choppy for me. I found it a little difficult to follow. Could just be me, but it just didn't have the same flow as other Block novels. It won't keep me from reading his other Scudder books. ( )

Boring, unless you enjoy following a guy from bar to bar ….

A lot of good reviews, but I tried the first three - no more. ( )

Lawrence Block's Scudder is a wonderful character. He and his world are entirely believable. In fact, these are stories that could be an account of a real guy's experiences, which is not usually the case in hardboiled detective fiction.

This is a hard-drinking PI (without a license) who, later in the series, kicks the booze and starts attending AA meetings at whatever church/center is closest. If you've seen the movie with Liam Neeson, then you know why he quit the police force (accidentally kills a child, while apprehending two murderers) and that's also why he becomes a functioning alcoholic. He's a complex character who is tough, but not able to kick a roomful of ass, a good detective, but not able to solve mysteries without the necessary luck and clues... basically, a believable knight in tarnished armour.

This one involves a murdered dominatrix, a framed cop who is dirty as hell, but not a murderer, political dirty dealing, and just a little bit of (off camera) sex. Oh... and a hell of a lot of drinking.

"It was a hard morning. I swallowed some aspirin and went downstairs to the Red Flame for a lot of coffee. It helped a little. My hands were slightly shaky and my stomach kept threatening to turn over.
What I wanted was a drink. But I wanted it badly enough to know not to have it. I had things to do, places to go, people to see. So I stuck with the coffee."

I like the honesty of his struggle, and how it progresses through the series. ( )

If, like I did, you started reading the Matthew Scudder series with some of the later books in the series where Scudder runs from AA meeting to AA meeting, it comes as a shock to delve into the early books in the series where he is actually rolling from bar to bar and often barely remembers his conversations from the previous night. Obviously, the bar-hopping life has to precede the AA meetings, but it gives the story a decidedly different feel.

You can pick up the Scudder novels in just about any order and be intrigued. For the most part, they are each independent books. Each one is a terrific detective novel. If you think these novels are going to be about a hardboiled detective with a fedora and a sexy secretary taking dictation, you will be quite surprised. Although derived from the hardboiled tradition, the Scudder books are different. Scudder is an old-fashioned detective who puts together little bits and pieces and figures things out by dogged work.

Scudder, if you did not know, is a former police officer. One night, off duty in a bar (where else would he be), he sees two guys hold up the joint and take out the bartender. Pursuing them outside, Scudder took them out, but a stray bullet from his gun ricocheted into the skull of a seven-year-old girl, ending her life. The shooting was found justified, but Scudder lost the desire for police work, the desire for his married life, and holed up in Hell’s Kitchen, doing favors for people in return for a few bucks. It is a dark period of his life and he literally tries to drown his troubles in booze.

“In The Midst Of Death” is a terrific detective story and certainly deserves five stars. An officer (Jerry Broadfield) has had it with graft and crooked double-dealings and has talked to a special prosecutor. No one on the NYPD has any love for him anymore and someone put a call girl up to alleging that Broadfield has been demanding weekly payments from her. Suddenly, the special prosecutor wants nothing to do with Broadfield and neither does anyone else. Scudder doesn’t like the guy, doesn’t like the fact he can’t tell when the guy is lying or not. He talks to the call girl, who is mesmerizing to him. When the call girl ends up slashed apart in Broadfield’s apartment, the whole world is ready to parade him up to the Attica and Scudder is about all Broadfield’s got. Scudder doesn’t think the crime makes any sense. Broadfield is way too smart to leave a dead body in his apartment. Scudder pokes around here and there, trying to figure out the connections, trying to figure out what went on.

The novel is perfectly paced and I, at least, found that it was hard to put down. It has a dark, hard feel to it, but it is not another remake of the classic hardboiled fedora-wearing detective. This is a novel with depth and substance to it and you can see how Block’s writing has matured.
Five stars for this one. ( )