Scudder # 1

The Sins of the Fathers
Lawrence Block
1976

Definitely have read some Lawrence Block novels before. Read a few of the Bernie the burglar series (I was surprised to read they made a movie of one of them with Whoopie Goldberg in the title role). I don't like to start a series in the middle or the end so when I decided to check out his Matthew Scudder, the alcoholic ex-cop detective, I decided to the read the first one.

It starts with the murder of a girl who likes older men a little (a lot) too much by her gay roommate. Or is he? Or did he? She has a dad who wants to know about her life and what happened. The gay friend has a dad too (and those are the fathers in the title). And it's very good. Taut plot, good characters, noirish New York setting. Maybe a little dated in terms of the social situations described (but it was written almost 40 years ago).

Matt stops drinking in about book 12 and like all ex-drunks I don't know if he'll still be fun. I'm going to read more of these for sure. I don't know if I'll read all 17 but here's the latest: