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A review by tummidge
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse: A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel by Lawrence Block
5.0
For a long time my world of American crime literature consisted of Pelecanos, Lehane and Don Winslow and with UK bookshops not stocking a great deal of US stock apart from the most popular novelists it's taken me a long time to find other authors to join the aforementioned. There was also my aversion to long running detective series as I prejudicially and pretentiously thought they were all alike and of little consequence. How very wrong could I be!
I initially came across Lawrence Block through his short stories and was given an omnibus copy of the first three Scudder novels by my Dad. It's taken a good while, but Block is now reaching the status of a favourite and cherished author.
In this, the ninth in the series, Block is quite masterful with his storytelling especially in the early going and is constantly doing interesting things with his lead character rather than resting on his laurels. The first four novels were good, but since Eight Million Ways to Die this series has really hit its stride and as mentioned in my review of the previous novel introduced recurring characters to build Scudder's world.
It's a case right now of trying not to whizz through these novels rather than reaching for each one after the next. I want to be able to savour them especially since I'm now at the halfway mark in the series.
I initially came across Lawrence Block through his short stories and was given an omnibus copy of the first three Scudder novels by my Dad. It's taken a good while, but Block is now reaching the status of a favourite and cherished author.
In this, the ninth in the series, Block is quite masterful with his storytelling especially in the early going and is constantly doing interesting things with his lead character rather than resting on his laurels. The first four novels were good, but since Eight Million Ways to Die this series has really hit its stride and as mentioned in my review of the previous novel introduced recurring characters to build Scudder's world.
It's a case right now of trying not to whizz through these novels rather than reaching for each one after the next. I want to be able to savour them especially since I'm now at the halfway mark in the series.