Reviews

Out on the Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block

jsdrown's review against another edition

4.0

Excellent Scudder novel. Subtle as always. It has a low emphasis on plot and a higher emphasis on small moments. I think this is one of those series that for me will be a 5 star series with very few 5 star books. The quality is consistent and they seem intentionally minimalist so when the moments happen they feel larger than they are. I think I might have been harsher on the earlier books because I didn't get this right away. I think if I ever reread them the first few would fair better in my mind. Great dialogue in this one. Block is also a bit more giving with the ending in this one. Sometime he hangs you out to dry. Starting with Eight Million Ways to Die the series has really found it's legs.

jbrito's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

henrismum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Take away: Lawrence Block, you are a creative bastard! Amazing ending, although a bit of a slow start. Well, people are evil, especially in NYC.
Narration: Dan Butler - He was great from the get go, but I don't think he narrates any others in the series.
Normal Speed - Accelerated Speed
New  - Second - Third - Committed
Series - Non Series - Non-Fiction - Author
Listening to this book was a chore.
I'm glad I listened to this book.
I didn't want this book to end.
I could not wait to be done with this book.
Average, but better than anything I've written.

dantastic's review against another edition

4.0

A car dealer from Indiana hires Matthew Scudder to find his missing daughter, who went to New York to become an actress. Meanwhile, a fellow AA member of Scudder's dies in his apartment in what appears to be an accidental death. Can Scudder find the missing girl and figure out what really happened to his friend?

Out on the Cutting Edge is yet another of Lawrence Block's great Matthew Scudder books. As usual, the ending was a big surprise. The character of Mickey Ballou was a nice contrast to Scudder and has future promise as a character. Having Scudder join AA a couple books ago looks like it was a good decision, not only for the good of the Scudder character but also to provide a source of future plots.

While I wouldn't start with this one, it's a good entry in the Scudder series.

thejoeyharris's review against another edition

5.0

A change in the series

This is the first book that brings a change to Matt’s world. This is the book where he meets Mick and one of literatures greatest friendships begins.

mschlat's review against another edition

4.0

This is good but not great Scudder. I really liked that we've moved to the sober part of Scudder's career, and there's some interesting parts where Matthew has to judge the risks to his sobriety when he wants to investigate in bars and whatnot, but the mystery wasn't that fascinating.

justinsdrown's review against another edition

4.0

Excellent Scudder novel. Subtle as always. It has a low emphasis on plot and a higher emphasis on small moments. I think this is one of those series that for me will be a 5 star series with very few 5 star books. The quality is consistent and they seem intentionally minimalist so when the moments happen they feel larger than they are. I think I might have been harsher on the earlier books because I didn't get this right away. I think if I ever reread them the first few would fair better in my mind. Great dialogue in this one. Block is also a bit more giving with the ending in this one. Sometime he hangs you out to dry. Starting with Eight Million Ways to Die the series has really found it's legs.

poachedeggs's review against another edition

3.0

I listened to the audiobook for the first half, and read the rest on my kindle. While I enjoyed listening to the book, it was kind of slow. I liked that I could do it when climbing stairs (during my workout) or right before bed, when my eyes were too tired. But ultimately, reading let me not just immerse myself more quickly into the narrative; it also gave me more room to imagine Scudder's world.

trudilibrarian's review against another edition

4.0

Scudder is three years sober when we run into him again in Book 7, Out on the Cutting Edge. He's faithfully attending meetings, and even leading a few when the mood strikes him. He's also still living in his spare hotel room lodgings and with a lot more time on his hands now that he's quit the bar scene and sipping bourbon coffee by the quart. While the vapor fumes of booze no longer waft from his person, there is yet an elemental quality of loneliness that continues to seep from the pores of our favorite New Yorker.

No wonder then that he should take up the case of a missing young woman at the behest of her distraught parents, and that he should find himself taking a much closer look into the sudden death of fellow AA member Eddie. Eddie is a man who dies with dark secrets on his lips, and Scudder's spidey senses are urging him to uncover those secrets no matter what the cost.

The thing I love most about the Scudder books is that they are such fine pieces of place -- Scudder's New York is just as much a character as Scudder himself. We've hit the late 80's where rents are sky-rocketing in the Big Apple and rent control is a landlord's sworn enemy. I find the details Block is able to pepper his books with always fascinating. He drops them into the story like a pro, as they work seamlessly side-by-side with the unfolding mystery. Like when Scudder interviews an actor who, with bitter amusement, comments on all the young men sick with AIDS:

We're all whirling merrily through the void on a dying planet, and gay people are just doing their usual number, being shamelessly trendy as always. Right out in front on the cutting edge of death.

It's a heart-breaking sentiment, and in an instant we are thrown back in time living and breathing the gritty reality of Scudder's city. It's not misty-eyed nostalgia, or even vintage. It's authentic, it's time travel.

This Scudder installment is also noteworthy because it's where we first encounter Mick Ballou, a.k.a The Butcher Boy. Ballou is a giant man with big hands and a bloodstained apron. Rumors abound about his violent prowess, and include toting around a head in a bowling ball bag and beating a man to death with a baseball bat. Despite Ballou's possible homicidal tendencies, he and Scudder hit it off and talk to each other in a way usually reserved only for the confessional or perhaps the man pouring your whiskey. Inexplicably, there is an instant kinship and unbeknownst to either man, Ballou is the key to solving the mystery of not only the missing girl, but Eddie's untimely death. This is a *great* character, and I can't wait to get more of him in the future.

paulataua's review against another edition

4.0

Number 7 in the series and the three years sober Scudder is hired to find a missing girl. As with all the others in the series, it is not big on plot and moves along at the slowest of paces, but the writing is great. I marvel at the way Block captures the feel of the run down areas with their bars, their homeless beggars, and their unwholesome characters. It almost feels like you are experiencing everything first hand. Even the solution of the detective part, which you are never really allowed to put center stage, is more satisfying than earlier books in the series. Not for everyone, but definitely for me.