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At this point Matt Scudder is 62 years old, happily married and semi-retired. But don’t think that he’s content with just hitting the early bird special at the nearest buffet or spending his time arguing with empty chairs.

The murder of a wealthy couple shocks New York, and the case catches Matt’s interest because he had attended the same event they were at before they were killed. But the discovery of a murder/suicide of two men leaves a mountain of evidence proving they were the killers so whole thing is wrapped up quickly. After meeting a relative of the couple with a few misgivings about the case, Matt slowly drifts into an informal investigation and finds clues that point to a third man behind it all.

As usual there’s a personal subplot with Matt feeling guilty and edgy after a strained encounter with his grown sons at a family funeral. Matt walked out on his boys when they were young and while he supported them financially and tried to be part of their lives, he realizes that he’s never going to be anyone’s nomination for Father-Of-The-Year. Block plays up that angle by using Matt’s young associate TJ a lot in this one and their interactions highlight that while Matt might not have done well by his biological kids, he’s been a good friend and role model to this surrogate son.

There’s also a very nasty and creepy villain at work in this one, and I absolutely loved the process by which Matt eventually starts piecing this mystery together.

Random personal trivia: I met Lawrence Block when he was on tour for this book back in 2001. He politely answered my question about why in the hell Whoopi Goldberg had been cast as Bernie Rhodenbarr in the Burglar movie even though he had obviously been asked this a couple of thousand times before, and he gave a great reading of the Scudder short story The Night and the Music that I still think about whenever I pick up one of these books.