The Sins of the Fathers: A Matt Scudder Mystery Paperback – 6 January 1997

I was first introduced to Lawrence Block by the Hard Case Crime mysteries, and was keen to read more of his work. This is as gritty and hard-boiled as it gets, absolutely loved it. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Might read it again but not sure

Livro que descobri por acaso, indicado pela Amazon. Gostei bastante e não vejo a hora de ler novas aventuras de Matthew Scudder.Quem gostou da série True Detective da HBO certamente vai gostar.

In “A Diet of Treacle” Lawrence Block detailed the depths to which young adults fleeing to the city in the early sixties had reached. That books showed a world of drugs, prostitution, depravity, and bloody apartments. A decade later, Block introduced the world to the character of Matthew Scudder in “The Sins of the Fathers” and, in many ways, revisited the idea of what happened to kids who left college and sank into the netherworld of New York City in the early seventies. In particular, this is the story of a young lady who became a call girl and was found hacked apart with a razor and her male roommate was found wandering in front of the apartment building, half-crazed and covered with blood. He hanged himself in the tombs within a few days. The legal establishment considered the case closed at that point. But, when the girl’s father asks Scudder to poke around and find out who his daughter was and what her life had been about, Scudder unravels things about these two kids he never would have suspected.You can pick up the Scudder novels in just about any order and be intrigued. For the most part, they are each independent books. Each one is a terrific detective novel. If you think these novels are going to be about a hardboiled detective with a fedora and a sexy secretary taking dictation, you will be quite surprised. Although derived from the hardboiled tradition, the Scudder books are different. Scudder is an old-fashioned detective who puts together little bits and pieces and figures things out by dogged work.Scudder, if you did not know, is a former police officer. One night, off duty in a bar (where else would he be), he sees two guys hold up the joint and take out the bartender. Pursuing them outside, Scudder took them out, but a stray bullet from his gun ricocheted into the skull of a seven-year-old girl, ending her life. The shooting was found justified, but Scudder lost the desire for police work, the desire for his married life, and holed up in Hell’s Kitchen, doing favors for people in return for a few bucks. It is a dark period of his life and he literally tries to drown his troubles in booze.This book is an amazing introduction to the Scudder series and is absolutely a powerful story. Although, as noted earlier, you can hints about this book in some of the earlier Block books about the beats and the hippies, Block’s writing truly blossoms when he writes about Scudder. These books have a depth to them that few modern-day mysteries do. Five stars, indeed.

Block is always good.