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In The Midst of Death & A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block
In The Midst Of Death and A Stab In The Dark by Lawrence Block
Orion's reprints (through the Phoenix imprint) of the Matt Scudder books continues with these, the third and fourth entries in the series. In the Midst of Death sees Scudder hired by a cop blowing the whistle on police corruption - though that's not the point as the cop in question is in the frame for the murder of a high class hooker he's associated with. Scudder of course has to clear him and comes to question his client's motives for turning on the force. A Stab in the Dark reopens the case of a murder attributed to a serial killer already behind bars - the victim's father needs to know the truth and sets Scudder on the trail.
The appeal of a series like this lies, of course, in the strength of it's lead character, which a lesser writer may use as an opportunity to introduce any prop, gimmick or cliché to support his or her protagonist. Scudder is merely a flawed human being. In these earlier novels he's working his penance; labouring under a sense of guilt that keeps him from forming any close relationships and separates him from his fellow human beings. He's driven to do good and this renders him as noble and misguided as any Spade or Marlowe, fuelled by the coffee and bourbon that lubricates his mental processes.
Lawrence Block has been writing for a very long time and his experience shows in the solid, efficient, unfussy writing on display here. In these days of doorstop blockbusters, it's refreshing to find a writer who can compress so much detail of place and mood into such comparatively slim volumes and still manage to construct a plot that intrigues and surprises the reader while appearing to exert a minimum of effort in the process. Block is a master of the form.
