Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series is a classic and deservedly so, beginning with the early Scudder books with its Hell's Kitchen atmosphere, and an alcoholic Matt somehow doing his "favors" for friends but refusing to become an official PI. Just a burned out cop getting by, except that Block's articulate prose elevates the series, even when Scudder finally gets sober. The later books in the series have him going to AA meetings. He somehow keeps that edge.

Murder mystery. A good book to read when you can't sleep anyway.

Written as a retrospective by Matt Scudder, detailing a couple of concurrent cases that he worked on ten years earlier. It was a way of revisiting the hard-drinking, hard-living Scudder without having him fall off the wagon. Quite an ingenious device used by Block, actually. This one was a winner, everything you've come to expect and love from Block. At times poetic and poignant, at times hard and gritty. Very well done and highly recommended.

Great Scudder book, would recommend to anyone who likes detective fiction.

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