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mschlat's review
5.0
An excellent read (so much so that I read the last three-fourths in one afternoon). It's a good mystery with the personal connections between Scudder and the victims that always drive up the guilt and responsibility on Matthew's part, but the book is also a great story about addiction and recovery. I started the series knowing that this installment was important, and I am so glad I reached it.
trudilibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
"You know what you got in this city, this fucked-up toilet of a naked fucking city? You know what you got? You got eight million ways to die." ~Eight Million Ways to DieMatt Scudder, how much do I love thee? Let me count the eight million ways.
This is definitely my favorite of the Scudder books so far, for all the reasons captured in this review here. Eight Million Ways to Die is New York in all of its grimy splendor: murderous, amoral, seething and unsympathetic. Block creates an authentic portrait using his signature slicing prose to recall an early 80's Big Apple plagued by poverty, racial tensions, police corruption and crime. Scudder describes the degeneration of the subway system and if you think Block is exaggerating for dramatic effect, take a look at this slideshow of photos captured during this period.
When I think of Scudder's New York, this is what comes to mind for me:
It's enough to drive a good man to drink. And drink some more. Drink yourself into oblivion. Matt has a choice to make -- stay sober and live, or drink and die. It's not as easy a choice to make as it should be. Matt continues his struggle in a battle of will versus weakness, guilt versus loathing, that's as enthralling as anything on the subject I've read. There are demons to be wrestled and subdued. The road from self-hatred to self-acceptance can be a long and lonely one.
This time around Matt becomes tangled up in the gruesome murder of a young and beautiful prostitute. Her pimp Chance is a sure bet for the dirty deed, but he's the one who approaches Scudder and pays him to find the killer. The mystery is nicely layered and evenly plotted. Chance is an interesting dude and the chemistry he shares with Scudder is memorable. I really like their scenes and the dialogue exchanged between the two.
Actually, most of the dialogue in this book resonates with a clear-cut precision that carries within it a hint of the philosophical. Whether Scudder is interviewing a hooker with the heart of a poet or trying to outdo an embittered cop in a game of "the worst murder you ever heard", the dialogue snaps with an emotional fervency and stark honesty that's as addictive as anything poured from a bottle (and I'm already jonesing for my next fix).
What more can I say? I love this series and I thank the reading gods that there's much more to come yet.
paulataua's review
4.0
A prostitute asks Scudder to help her to leave her pimp. His intervention seems to have worked, but then she turns up dead. It might seem like a fairly straightforward detective procedural, but it is anything but that. The murder inquiry is both the least important and the least satisfying part of the novel, It’s the characters and their lives that underpin the story that work for me; a hooker that quotes John Donne, an almost sympathetic pimp who happens to be a recluse and a connoisseur of African masks, and Scudder himself, an ex-cop who is fighting his own demons and spends a fair amount of the time at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while on the case. I loved it despite not really appreciating the solution to the crime.
arthur_pendrgn's review
3.0
Many reviewers see this has the best of the series. Maybe I should read the books in order, but I don't see this as blatantly superior to some of the others. Yes, Matt's character makes significant choices and thus reveals a great deal of introspection.
usbsticky's review
4.0
After a long sabbatical from Lawrence Block books I got back into them and this is my second book. It's been so long that I went back and looked at my old reviews and agree that his books can be very good or very bad. Fortunately this is one of the good ones.
Spoilers ahead:
This is really 2 plots. One of them deals with Scudder's alcohol addiction problem. He spends a lot of time going to AA meetings, sometimes participating and sometimes not. But we follow along with him to see it from a (recovering) addicts POV. This part doesn't have anything to do with the main plot but is interspersed with it.
In the second plot he is hired by a high end(ish) prostitute who wants to get out of the life and wants him to tell her pimp, because she is afraid that he'll beat her. But he seems to acquiesce quite pleasantly and without a fuss. However in a few days she is found brutally murdered. And soon after, more prostitutes die, including a street walking transvestite one who doesn't seem to have any connection with the others.
I like this book because Block does a great job of making the characters, events and setting seem interesting and realistic. He has a knack of creating interesting characters.
He does a good job of writing the investigative procedural part too. Scudder looks at the problem and attacks it and methodically and patiently. He talks to all the witnesses, observes and evaluates. If he finds anything that doesn't seem kosher, he digs more. So you follow him along the investigative path. It's not a fast paced book but what makes it interesting are the people he meets and the way he handles them.
I would have given this book 5 stars except for the fact that the reveal is disappointing. He does all the required footwork but the reveal is sudden and complete. It's like in school when your teacher says "show your work, show how you came up with the answer, show your reasoning" and Scudder doesn't. Scudder shows how the cases are linked together but Block could have done a better job of explaining how Scudder came up with it. The tie up or conclusion was a bit disappointing too.
I loved the book until the last 10% or so. But overall I enjoyed it and want to know what happens next so I'm reading the next book already.
Spoilers ahead:
This is really 2 plots. One of them deals with Scudder's alcohol addiction problem. He spends a lot of time going to AA meetings, sometimes participating and sometimes not. But we follow along with him to see it from a (recovering) addicts POV. This part doesn't have anything to do with the main plot but is interspersed with it.
In the second plot he is hired by a high end(ish) prostitute who wants to get out of the life and wants him to tell her pimp, because she is afraid that he'll beat her. But he seems to acquiesce quite pleasantly and without a fuss. However in a few days she is found brutally murdered. And soon after, more prostitutes die, including a street walking transvestite one who doesn't seem to have any connection with the others.
I like this book because Block does a great job of making the characters, events and setting seem interesting and realistic. He has a knack of creating interesting characters.
He does a good job of writing the investigative procedural part too. Scudder looks at the problem and attacks it and methodically and patiently. He talks to all the witnesses, observes and evaluates. If he finds anything that doesn't seem kosher, he digs more. So you follow him along the investigative path. It's not a fast paced book but what makes it interesting are the people he meets and the way he handles them.
I would have given this book 5 stars except for the fact that the reveal is disappointing. He does all the required footwork but the reveal is sudden and complete. It's like in school when your teacher says "show your work, show how you came up with the answer, show your reasoning" and Scudder doesn't. Scudder shows how the cases are linked together but Block could have done a better job of explaining how Scudder came up with it. The tie up or conclusion was a bit disappointing too.
I loved the book until the last 10% or so. But overall I enjoyed it and want to know what happens next so I'm reading the next book already.
bambooty's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
bundy23's review
5.0
This is about as heartbreaking a look at the life of a depressed alcoholic as I've ever read, honestly, every single time Matthew Scudder's entered a bar my heart would sink. I never though when I read [b:The Sins of the Fathers|39507|The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder, #1)|Lawrence Block|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408929959l/39507._SY75_.jpg|1593410] that this series could've reached these heights.
This is a noir masterpiece.
Oh, and some hookers get chopped up by a machete wielding maniac.
This is a noir masterpiece.
Oh, and some hookers get chopped up by a machete wielding maniac.
boleary30's review
3.0
Not the greatest story, but the main character Matthew Scudder, makes it a worthwhile read.
gon8go's review against another edition
5.0
Woah, I thought after reading all the greats like Hammett and Chandler there were just re-hashes of their work in varying degrees of quality left. I was wrong. I am a huge fan of the P.I. genre and this might be the best work I've read. What gets me thimking is what else is out there that I havn't discovered yet and where has Matt Scudder been all my P.I. living life?
I wont go into a long description of the plot but let me just say that if you're the least bit interested in P.I. stories, this is one of the best. Having read Robert B. Parker's Spenser novel Valediction where spenser becomes depressed after losing His girlfriens Susan. Over the course of the book he starts to lose grip on his strict moral code and drinks excessivley. When I finished Eight million ways to die I thought This is who Spenser might be if he continued on that path.
I wont go into a long description of the plot but let me just say that if you're the least bit interested in P.I. stories, this is one of the best. Having read Robert B. Parker's Spenser novel Valediction where spenser becomes depressed after losing His girlfriens Susan. Over the course of the book he starts to lose grip on his strict moral code and drinks excessivley. When I finished Eight million ways to die I thought This is who Spenser might be if he continued on that path.