A Walk Among the Tombstones : A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel

SUMMARY: A ruthless, ingenious pair of entrepreneurial monsters is preying on the loved ones of those who live outside the law. Though he has no love for drug dealers and poison peddlers, ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder now must help them put two thrill-kill extortionists out of business—before another drop of innocent blood is spilled.

a New Breed Of Entrepreneurial Monster Has Set Up Shop In The Big City. Ruthless, Ingenious Murderers, They Prey On The Loved Ones Of Those Who Live Outside The Law—knowing Full Well That Criminals Will Never Run To The Police No Matter How Brutal The Threat. So Other Avenues For Justice Must Be Explored—which Is Where Ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder Comes In. Scudder Has No Love For The Drug Dealers And Poison Peddlers Who Now Need His Help. Nevertheless, He Is Determined To Do Whatever It Takes To Put An Elusive Pair Of Thrill-kill Extortionists Out Of Business. For They Are Using The Innocent To Fuel Their Terrible Enterprise.

publishers Weekly

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. (nov.)

"One million dollars cash, or we kill your wife." High-volume dope dealers make an easy mark for kidnappers. After all, what are they going to do, call the cops? But Kenan Khoury, heroin wholesaler to the five boroughs, haggled over the price, and his wife came back in pieces. The only person he can trust to avenge her is Matt Scudder, ex-cop, sober alcoholic, who wields his own brand of guerrilla justice. Scudder enlists his call-girl girlfriend Elaine, a streetwise punk from Times Square, and two phone-phreak computer geniuses to track the killers through the backstreets of Brooklyn. But the killers' depravity is matched only by their cleverness, and their next target is a little girl. In one of Block's most electrifying denouements, Scudder turns a cold trail into a red-hot explosion one rainy night in a Brooklyn cemetery. A ruthless, ingenious pair of entrepreneurial monsters is preying on the loved ones of those who live outside the law. Though he has no love for drug dealers and poison peddlers, ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder now must help them put two thrill-kill extortionists out of business -- before another drop of innocent blood is spilled Crackling with the city's energy, A Walk Among the Tombstones weds the breakneck suspense of A Ticket to the Boneyard to the relentless moral vision of A Dance at the Slaughterhouse. It is Lawrence Block's finest, most deeply satisfying novel, and a virtuoso performance. Matthew Scudder Crime Novel #10. "When Lawrence Block is in his Matthew Scudder mode, crime fiction can sidle up so close to literature that often there's no degree of difference" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Despite his feelings about drug dealers, ex-cop-turned-private detective Matthew Scudder pursues the people who kidnapped and killed the wife of Brooklyn heroin wholesaler Kenan Khoury. Reissue.