This time hard-drinking ex-cop Matt Scudder is roped in to an NYPD internal investigation that has ended up with one detective in the slammer on a murdre rap. Jerry is as clean as the world would like him to be although Matt isn't too sure, after all, he was only keen to dish the dirt on his former colleagues as a way of saving his own skin when caught on the take.
I liked this soooooooo much more than When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. I like how Block doesn’t really narrate the story… he lets the characters tell you what’s going on through the dialogue. There’s no futzing around with pages of background story and set-up. The book does show its age at some points, with mentions of $20/week rent (in New York City!?) and Scudder’s reliance on pay phones, but it’s easy enough to look past. I guessed the bad guy, but not long before Scudder did. A nice, quick read.
