LAWRENCE BLOCK - IN THE MIDST OF DEATH (1976)

Blurb....

NYPD cop Jerry Broadfield has turned on his own, collaborating in a Special Prosecutor's investigation into police corruption. It's a move that lands him in a jail cell on a murder rap and Scudder has his work cut out trying to free Broadfield.

I’ve got a bit of a series jag on at the minute; I’m currently reading 5 separate character series at the rate of 1book a month. Whether each and every one sustains my interest in the coming months, only time will tell. One that does look like prolonging my interest and staying the course is Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder.

Currently 17 books long, this is the 3^rd instalment I’ve read in as many months.  

Block has a writing style that engages me. Scudder frequently bar-hops, he’s often doing nothing more than drowning his sorrows or taking his poison with coffee if he’s not on a full-blown bender. There’s a frailty about Scudder, whilst physically large and imposing, and mentally sharp his guilt about accidentally killing a young girl while on the police force is slowly dragging him down. He provides financial support for his ex-wife and boys, but never seems willing to be the dad his sons clearly crave, always with a ready excuse as to why he can’t take them to a game. Drink being his one true love, but he hasn’t fully surrendered to it just yet. He’s still functional and still coherent most of the time.

There are almost two mysteries involved in each of the books I’ve read in the series so far. Each case, each crime, each murder is somewhat incidental, in my opinion to the real mystery of Matthew Scudder which Block slowly reveals a book at a time.    

I’m already looking forward to episode 4 next month.

4 from 5

 Bought my copy second hand years ago for £4.50 from Oxfam – the first books in an omnibus edition – bargain!