Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 12/28/2021 + 1178 more book reviews

It's been a while since I have read a Scudder novel by Lawrence Block. I remember reading A Walk Among the Tombstones after the movie version came out. This one, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse is the novel immediately preceding Tombstones and it is another gritty page-turner that I was immersed in for a few days. In this one, Scudder is hired to look into the death of a woman who was brutally raped and tortured. The woman's brother wants to find out if her husband, Richard Thurman, was responsible for the murder. Thurman benefitted monetarily from the murder and the circumstances seem too pat for a random murder. But as Scudder looks into the murder he is shown a snuff tape by an acquaintance from AA where a young boy is tortured and murdered and he can't get this out of his mind. He thinks he may recognize the killer in the film even though he is masked in a rubber hood. Can this film be related to the death of Thurman's wife? And can Scudder sort out the pieces of the puzzle?

This novel really takes the reader to the underbelly of the sex-for-sale world in New York City of the late 1980s. It was a very compelling and intense read and I'll be looking forward to reading more in the series.

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