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The fifteenth Matt Scudder mystery. After a wealthy couple are killed in a brutal home invasion, Scudder is hired by their daughter to investigate the killings, despite the fact that the killers seem to be dead in a cut-and-dried murder-suicide.

While typically gritty, this book differs from the rest of the series in a few minor ways. For the first time, another character besides Scudder narrates in a few brief chapters; Block does a wonderful job here of evoking an egotistical, calculating, deranged intelligence, a man whose plots are so Machiavellian that his crimes would seem to have no motive at all. Indeed, he is so many steps ahead of the law that Scudder’s brand of rough justice seems not to touch him. In all, this is a terrific thriller, probably the very finest of the series; the now sixty-something Scudder is as dogged as ever, with Elaine and TJ providing good backup, and TJ’s use of technology, while dated, not the laughing stock it had been in A Walk Among the Tombstones. Mick Ballou has a very brief and very cool cameo, as well. In terms of hard-boiled drama on the mean streets, I doubt there’s a more satisfying thriller out there.

[Read twice: 7/9/03, 8/15/11]