A Walk Among the Tombstones

November 2, 1992
Despite their dark titles (the words Slaughterhouse and Boneyard figured in the previous two), Block's splendid, award-winning Matt Scudder novels are by no means unrelievedly bleak. His latest-as well as offering the customary skillful plotting, adroit pacing and sure sense of New York character-features a wry humor all its own, along with a particularly ingratiating and convincing pair of computer hackers. The premise is grim, certainly: a pair of men who prey murderously on women progress to kidnapping the womenfolk of drug dealers and demanding huge ransoms. Former alcoholic PI Scudder-now going to more AA meetings than ever-reluctantly agrees to help one dealer, a Lebanese, after his wife is killed by the kidnappers. Slowly and methodically he discerns a pattern in the mayhem. With the help of his erstwhile police colleagues, his black Times Square sidekick TJ and his call-girl sweetheart, Elaine, Scudder tightens the net on the culprits. When they seize the daughter of a Russian dealer, he is ready for the showdown. Block isn't big on action, though when it comes it is swift, vivid and horribly convincing; his Scudder books are built on character, atmosphere, crackling dialogue and a great deal of brooding-the taste for them is addictive. An equal of Elmore Monard and Robert Parker, Block deserves similar acclaim. Author tour.

October 27, 2014
Hammer proves a good choice as reader of this top-notch noir thriller, first published in 1992 and recently adapted into a major motion picture. When the wife of drug trafficker Kenan Khoury is kidnapped, held for ransom, and then brutally murdered, he asks Matt Scudder—the troubled ex-NYPD detective, recovering alcoholic, and unlicensed PI—to find out who did it. Scudder reluctantly takes on the case. With the help of his street-smart computer wiz protégé, T.J., some old NYPD contacts, and a lot of good old-fashioned gumshoeing, Scudder uncovers a slew of killings that may be connected to the murder of his client’s wife. The audio edition of Block’s hardboiled tale is plagued by poor editing with overly long pauses between paragraphs and dialogue. Still, if the listener is able to grow accustomed to the pacing, Hammer has a great feel for the material and takes full advantage of Block’s atmospheric prose to paint a rich portrait of early 1990s New York City. His gruff, gravelly voice fits perfectly with Scudder’s world-weary first-person narration, and he brings the book’s wide range of characters to life with distinctive, individual voices. A William Morrow paperback.