A Walk Among the Tombstones (1992)

A Matt Scudder novel. It's always fun to run across anachronisms in books written years ago. The morphing into non-existence of pay phones, once a feature of hotel cubbyholes and conference centers, 800 # phone cards, calls for a dime, the elimination of pay phone numbers; all of that is so foreign to the current generation that can't understand not being able to make an instant 911 call with their cell phones.

Classic Block. ( )

"A Walk Among The Tombstones" is Lawrence Block's tenth Matthew Scudder book and was first published in 1992. This is a review of the book. I have not seen the movie. Scudder is an ex-cop who fell into the bars in Hell's Kitchen and had a hard time falling out of the bars. He does some private detective work without a license and often relies on his old NYPD connections in between going to AA meetings and he goes to a lot of them.

This book is about a high-end drug dealer middleman who is very much insulated from street activity. That is, he thought that living in a fancy gated house kept him insulated from the violence and pain and it did, until someone kidnaps his wife and demands a million dollars. He pays the ransom and they return pieces of her in a box, like so many chops wrapped from the butcher. This dealer has a brother who met Scudder at a AA meeting and asks for help tracking down the guys who did it.
Scudder does an excellent job of piecing together tiny little clues and tracking down the killer gone mad.

What's great about this book is the realistic dialogue. This is not a bang-bang, shoot-em-up, kind of novel, although it has its share of gruesome violence. This book is about how the brothers and Scudder talk about what happened and what they should do and what Scudder is comfortable with. It is about Scudder and his assistant TJ and the telephone hacker brothers piecing together from so many payphones tiny bits of information. It is about Scudder tracking down other women who might have been attacked and mutilated and piecing together the bits of information.

For those of us who have been reading Block from his early days, it is evident how mature and focused his writing has become. This is an excellent novel and is highly recommended. ( )

As I have said some many times before, the book is much, much better than the movie! That doesn't mean that this book is great, it just means read it before, or rather, seeing the film! I like the character of Matthew Scudder and I liked the overall plot of this book, and especially the ending. I did not like the endless walks that Scudder takes, the lengthy descriptions of AA related sub plots (and I'm in the program!), or the character of Kenan Khoury, who I did not connect with, or even care about, at all. He seemed completely unrealistic, in words and in actions. But it is a good read, and like said, better than the movie! ( )

Scudder is reluctant to help a drug dealer who seeks revenge on kidnappers who killed his wife. But it becomes evident that they are serial offenders. Then they kidnap another dealer's 14 year old daughter. Scudder arranges the deal that gets the girl back. Meanwhile Scudder and Elaine reach a new level in their relationship.

From Amazon:

Kenan Khoury’s wife went out grocery shopping and never came home. Alive, anyway. But because Kenan Khoury buys and sells drugs for a living he can’t go to the police for help. He goes to Matthew Scudder instead -- an alcoholic ex-cop and unlicensed private eye who will stop at nothing to bring the brutal killers to justice before another innocent woman falls beneath their knives.

My Thoughts:

I like the story, but it was written several years ago when cell phones and the internet were not available. You have to put yourself in that time frame and remember what it must have been like for detectives to do research at that time. The book was very well written although at times it seemed to drag but always picked back up. Block's characters are always interesting because of their moral codes and flaws...very complex with interesting personal takes on what is right and wrong and how that affects their handling of both personal and occupational problems. The ending was a bit of a let-down but nothing you can't live with. I haven't seen the movie but I understand it is excellent. ( )