Lawrence Block is probably best known for his Matthew Scudder
series, still going strong after 16 books in 31 years.
Introduced with 1976's The Sins of the Father, Scudder was a
drunken ex-cop who did favors for friends, and friends of
friends, for a consideration. That he sees his work as
penance is made clear by his tithing, dropping 10% of his
earnings in the first poor box he runs across, even though he
is not at all religious. That it mostly goes to the Catholic
Church is merely because their sanctuaries are open longer
hours.
Scudder is seeking penance for killing a young girl with a
stray bullet while shooting at an escaping felon (who was
unfortunate/stupid enough to try to rob a bar where the cop
was drinking). Everyone regards it as a tragic accident, but
Scudder cannot get over it and quits the force. Soon, he also
walks away from his marriage.
Scudder is hardly the first guiltridden and/or drunken
unlicensed PI. He owes more than a bit to Ed McBain's Curt
Cannon (or Matt Cordell, depending upon which edition you
read) and Tucker Coe's (AKA Westlake) Mitch Tobin. However,
Block makes the character his own.
Some believe the series was at its best in the first four
books: The Sins of the Father, Time to Murder and Create, In
the Midst of Death and A Stab in the Dark. Scudder was still
a drunk and it always seemed uncertain whether or not he
would get off his bar stool to go knock on doors. He's old
school in his investigations, knocks on doors and talks to
people, gleaning info and putting it together. And those
doors are all over New York City. It's a cliche to say it,
but New York really is a character in this series. And Block
knows NY intimately.
Others, including me, think the series reached a new level
with the next book, Eight Million Ways to Die. There, Scudder
is forced to confront his drinking. The personal lives of PIs
are too often padding in contemporary series. Here they are
the meat, not to say Block ever neglects plot or
suspense.
It took Block some time to figure out where to go from there.
In fact, he sidestepped the issue in the next book, by
setting When the Sacred Ginmill Closes in the past when
Scudder was still drinking. This is also the book that
introduces his buddy Mick Ballou, an Irish gangster who
appears in varying degrees in most of following 16 books, all
after Scudder started working the AA program.
In those books, Scudder ages more or less in real time, 25
years over the 31 year series. And Scudder gets more
respectable. Eventually, he even gets a PI license.
Some complain that the series has lost its edge with
Scudder's respectability, but we keep reading. And Block
continues to experiment within the series.
If you've never read the series, I'd advise starting with
Eight Million Ways to Die or When the Sacred Ginmill closes.
But, as I noted above, others would recommend the earlier
books.
In fact, that might be a good place to start the discussion
of this series: Which part of the series is best? Why?
Other discussion questions:
How do respectability and/or age affect a hardboiled
hero?
How does a series stay fresh over a long run?
What is the proper balance between a hero's personal life and
the investigation?
Mark
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