A Long Line of Dead Men (Matthew Scudder) (Volume 12)
''The newest Matt Scudder novel by the blessedly prolific Block is right up to his usual standards...His ex-call girl companion, Elaine, is her usual comforting self, and there s a brilliant portrait of an offbeat New York lawyer, obviously modeled on William Kunstler, who specializes in representing the underdog. The scene where the lawyer and suspicious ex-cop Scudder get to know and like each other is alone worth the price of the book.'' --Publishers Weekly''Block takes this absolutely wonderful premise and makes the most of it. Like all the best hard-boiled writers in the post-Chandler era, Block knows that character and ambience are the heart and soul of crime fiction, but unlike so many of his brethren, he also maintains a healthy respect for plot. When you read a lot of mysteries, you come to feel a numbing inevitability about literary murder: there are only so many motives and so many ways to kill somebody, and we've seen them all. Hence the pleasure of encountering a new Block novel and realizing again the joys of a fresh premise.'' --Booklist (starred review)''An intelligent detective story that plays fair with the reader and yet will keep you guessing until the very end.'' --Rochester Post-Bulletin''A superior storyteller . . . Block has an awareness of the pain and pleasure of living. It is a gift that not all authors have.'' --San Antonio Express-News''Superb . . . Block writes better than all of them . . . He gets better and better all the time.'' --Village Voice''Matthew Scudder has evolved into the perfect noir hero.'' --Entertainment Weekly''Fiendishly clever . . . Block's Matthew Scudder series is one of the sure things in crime fiction, andA Long Line of Dead Mencarries it forward with a fine flourish.'' --Los Angeles Times Book Review''One of the best writers now working the beat, Lawrence Block has done something new and remarkable with the private eye novel.'' --Wall Street Journal''Block has never been in better form…His decidedly dark sense of humor has never been more in focus.'' --New York Times''A remarkable new novel . . . Letter perfect.'' --New York Times Book Review--This text refers to theMP3 CDedition.