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A review by usbsticky
A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
4.0
Spoilers ahead: As close to a linear plot as I've read in this series. A psychopath (Motley) targets prostitutes one of whom is a friend of Scudder's (Elaine). Not only does Motley use the services of Elaine for free, he takes money off her and hurts her. At a chance meeting at Elaine's apartment Scudder fights with Motley, then frames him in order to put him in prison.
After 12 years in the slammer Motley is free. He vows revenge, first killing an ex-prostitute friend of Elaine in Ohio and her entire family. He then travels back to New York, threatens Elaine and Scudder in advance, then starts a campaign of terrorism killing people close to or associated with Scudder before they finally meet in a showdown.
I find the plot a bit limited, cliched and farfetched. It's like Eli Wallach said in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: If you're going to shoot, shoot, don't talk. Motley goes through all this charade just to get killed in the end.
There isn't much of the usual police protocol mystery where Scudder interviews people because we already know who the villain is. There isn't even much suspense in finding out where he is. There's a lot of word filler, some interesting, some not. This is a short book, but it could have been even shorter without the word filler. It doesn't really add anything to the canon. It does give Scudder a new friend in Ohio (the detective in the Ohio case) and reaffirms his friendship with The Butcher, and creates a rift between him and Durkin.
So overall, a call-it-in type of crime fiction book. I would definitely not recommend this as a first Matthew Scudder book as it would probably turn people off from reading the series.
After 12 years in the slammer Motley is free. He vows revenge, first killing an ex-prostitute friend of Elaine in Ohio and her entire family. He then travels back to New York, threatens Elaine and Scudder in advance, then starts a campaign of terrorism killing people close to or associated with Scudder before they finally meet in a showdown.
I find the plot a bit limited, cliched and farfetched. It's like Eli Wallach said in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: If you're going to shoot, shoot, don't talk. Motley goes through all this charade just to get killed in the end.
There isn't much of the usual police protocol mystery where Scudder interviews people because we already know who the villain is. There isn't even much suspense in finding out where he is. There's a lot of word filler, some interesting, some not. This is a short book, but it could have been even shorter without the word filler. It doesn't really add anything to the canon. It does give Scudder a new friend in Ohio (the detective in the Ohio case) and reaffirms his friendship with The Butcher, and creates a rift between him and Durkin.
So overall, a call-it-in type of crime fiction book. I would definitely not recommend this as a first Matthew Scudder book as it would probably turn people off from reading the series.