Scudder seeks killer of upper middle class couple

Matt's getting too old for this shit. I still enjoyed the book, but it felt a little cobbled together. ( )

He began as an ex-police detective with a gold shield who left the force after a child was caught in the crossfire of a righteous shooting. He left his family and suburban life, too, drinking himself into a stupor before spending decades attending meetings in church basements and finding a way to live with himself. On the surface by the time the fifteenth novel rolls around, Scudder has put a life together. He has remarried, lives in an upscale apartment, attends the theater and classical concerts, and has TJ working for him almost as a partner. But beneath the surface, he's still haunted by some ghosts from his past such as the wife and kids he walked out on twenty years earlier. There is a brutal double murder at the heart of this novel and, not surprisingly, one that appears to be a closed case very quickly with the perpetrators themselves dying in a murder-suicide. But, something is not right the way it all closed up like a present with a pretty bow on it and Scudder is asked to poke around the tiniest scraps and find out if there was something more to the story, something more sinister than the brutal, depraved attack on the couple who had sat in the same theater with Scudder and Elaine that night. The book has the same gritty voice that Scudder novels are known for and the plot will leave the reader guessing and double guessing. Although the story has its fair share of blood and death, it doesn't feel as visceral or as dangerous as other books in the series and it does seem to take a while for the plot to develop. Block also delves into a technique new to the series by interspersing chapters with the killer's voice along with Scudder's own. All in all, a good, solid read, although, read by itself as a standalone book, it might not prove to be earth-shattering. ( )

Another good installment in the Matthew Scudder series. Scudder is definitely mellowing with age and slowing down. This makes sense for the character the Lawrence Block developed. I liked how Block gave two viewpoints in the story--Scudder's and the killer's. This did not give away the whodunit" but actually led you back and forth in different directions trying to figure out the killer. Scudder himself wasn't as gritty as usual, but the story itself was the usual Lawrence Block grit.
" ( )

From Amazon:

The city caught its collective breath when upscale couple Byrne and Susan Hollander were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Now, a few days later, the killers themselves have turned up dead behind the locked door of a Brooklyn hellhole -- one apparently slain by his partner in crime who then took his own life.

There's something drawing Matthew Scudder to this case that the cops have quickly and eagerly closed: a nagging suspicion that a third man is involved, a cold, diabolical puppet master who manipulates his two accomplices, then cuts their strings when he's done with them. No one but Scudder even suspects he exists. And his worst fear is that the guy is just getting started.

My Thoughts:

Scudder's search for a budding serial killer who murders a wealthy couple comes off feeling a little thin in the plot department. Scudder's first-person narrative is interspersed with chapters told from the killer's point of view and for the most part these chapters don't add much to the story. Take them out entirely and you can still easily follow what's happening, making these chapters appear superfluous. Of course, taking them out would have also made the book pretty darn short, too. On the plus side, it's always nice to drop in on Scudder's life and see what's going on with him. There's a great subplot involving the death of Scudder's ex-wife, finally allowing the reader a chance to meet his oft-mentioned but never seen estranged sons. The reader also gets a chance to catch up with Scudder's terrific cast of secondary characters--his wife Elaine, his streetwise helper TJ, Irish gangster Mick Ballou...characters who are always a lot of fun to read about. But overall, Hope to Die just doesn't stack up to the best in the Scudder series but still an enjoyable read for fans of the series. ( )