A Ticket to the Boneyard

I was mildly entertained by Lawrence Block's "Even the Wicked." "A Walk Among the Tombstones" was gritty enough to get me to try my third Matthew Scudder: "A Ticket to the Boneyard." Now I am hooked, and will read the entire series.Scudder is an ex-NYPD cop...a flawed, complex, likeable, pragmatic character. Now an unlicensed PI, he investigates for his friends.The plot in "Boneyard" roars along from page one with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing all the way. Not predictable. The villain is one of the most realistic, despicable and depraved I have run across.Great hard-edged writing that leaps off the pages.I am making Lawrence Block a priority.

This was another great work of crime fiction. The story is a little familiar, reminiscent of old Dirty Harry films, but this isn't just a novel about plot. It is about style, Matthew Scudder and New York City. My favorite flawed hero, Scudder, is a complex character who has several fascinating and oddly compelling relationships with the various types of citizens of New York. It is also a novel about alcoholism, loneliness and friendship; at one point Scudder reflects that his best friends are a prostitute and a career criminal. Ironically, it is the prostitute and the criminal who lifts Scudder from the depths; not his law abiding friends. A moving, reflective and skillfully written novel, it is about as good as crime fiction gets. Highly recommended.

"TICKET" CROSSES THE LINE OF THE MYSTERY NOVEL TO MAINSTREAM AS DOES ANOTHER BLOCK MASTERPIECE, "A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES". THE REST OF BLOCK'S BOOKS ARE FAIRLY PREDICTABLE FOR CONTENT AND STYLE. MYSTERY AUTHORS GENERALLY WRITE ONE OR TWO GOOD BOOKS AND THEN RE-WRITE THEM TEN MORE TIMES UNTIL SALES FALL OFF. ED MCBAIN'S "KISS" IS ANOTHER EXCEPTION. THESE THREE BOOKS WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.

. Matthew Scudder is Lawrence Block's remarkable private investigator. He's a former NYPD detective who left the force after an accident left a child dead in a crossfire. Because he is unlicensed you can't "hire" him. Instead he does you a favor by taking your case and solving the crime. In exchange for the favor the client returns the favor by giving him some cash. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings throughout the book. In earlier Scudder novels Matt is almost always without a drink in his hands. I have read most of the Scudder series to date and fond "A Ticket to the Boneyard," the best. I could not put it down. Reading it took priority of everything else I had to do or should have done. Scudder is reacquainted with James Leo Motley sent to prison a dozen years earlier. Motley vowed to get even and kill Scudder and all his women. Although Scudder is divorced the only woman in his life is Elaine, a call girl. This doesn't stop Scudder as friends, acquaintances; the psychotic killer eliminates people he doesn't know. If you read only one Lawrence Block/Scudder novel, "A Ticket to the Boneyard," should be that novel. An afterthought: Matthew Scudder is a realistic, likeable character. In the early books we find that after he left the NYPD he took up drinking and left his wife and two sons. From time to time she asks Scudder to send more money because "we need it." Scudder generally obliges. Although not living with his family Scudder is not distant from them. He speaks to his boys on the phone and brings them into the city for a ball game. For some reason that Scudder doesn't know finds himself visiting churches and leaving a donation, tithing, ten percent of money recently received from a client. Scudder says Catholic churches receive donations for than others because they are generally open at late hours. Although he's not a religious man he finds peace and solitude in the almost always empty sanctuary he visits.

I have just finished reading "A Ticket to the Boneyard" and it is arguably the best in the Scudder series. I have read all the Scudder mysteries except for the newest three ("A long line of dead men", "The Devil knows you're dead" and "A walk among the tombstones). "A Ticket to the Boneyard" would definitely be my first choice if I had to recommend someone to read a novel by Lawrence Block. "Boneyard" is a cross between existentialism and "Cape Fear", and Block takes Scudder's restlessness and edginess to the extreme, in a perfectly defined and balanced narrative that wastes no time and takes you on a ride through the worst of NYC from which you cannot escape. The villain in this novel is one of the meanest, sharpest and most believable SOB's to be featured in literature ever. I inhaled "A Ticket to the Boneyard" in three days, and it would have been less had I not cared about being fired from my job. Scudder is a blast, and Lawrence Block is a genius.