A Walk Among the Tombstones

The tenth installment in the Matthew Scudder series, Lawrence Block takes a peek inside the mind of a very calculating killer. The story starts with the kidnapping and eventual ransom of the wife of a heroin trafficker, Keenan Khoury. The kidnappers had obviously done their homework as Khoury was not going to involve the police. He does however call his brother Peter. After a series of calls to phone booths, presumably to determine no others were involved, the kidnappers set up the exchange. The ransom is paid and Keenan receives his wife back in several pieces. Unable to leave matters as they now stood, Keenan takes the advice of his brother and calls Matthew Scudder, who Peter remembers from one of his AA meetings.

Scudder, an ex-cop, show more has very little evidence to work with. Pounding the pavement near the scene of the kidnapping, Scudder is able to discern a rough number of criminals involved as well as a basic description of the vehicle used. Receiving help from his girlfriend Elaine, a young street urchin known only as TJ, and TJ's computer hacker friends the Kong's, Matthew is able to piece together the sequence of events leading to the death of Keenan Khoury's wife. Scudder also relies on his police training and gut instincts to determine this is not the first time the killers have struck. When another girl is kidnapped, Scudder is ready and sets up the exchange in - you guessed it - a graveyard.

I thought the detective work done by Scudder, especially considering the little he had to go on, was quite spectacular. Although most of the people he talked to and leads he followed up bore no fruit, I imagine that's the way it truly is in detective work. But he was persistent and eventually pieced enough together to find the killers. After that, he left it up to Keenan Khoury to exact justice, or at least his brand of it.

As I said earlier, this is the tenth in the Matthew Scudder line of books, however it is the first that I have read. I have found in previous series that reading the books in order lend more to each story, especially in the line of character progression. There were also many questions I had that were not answered in this book but were probably addressed in previous installments, such as: why did Scudder leave the police force? Did it have something to do with his drinking problem? How long had he been sober? What happened to make him want to get sober? How did he survive when he only worked occasionally?

One thing I did not like was all the talk about AA and the goings on at the meetings. I understand he was a recovering alcoholic, but sometimes he went to 3 meetings a day. I guess I don't understand AA enough, but I always thought that a person only went to a meeting when they were afraid they might start drinking again, and I never got the impression that Matthew was ever close to that. I understand it is an important part of his character, but I felt way too much time was spent on the subject. Overall, a very good detective novel and it makes me want to go back and read the previous installments. show less

The tenth installment in the Matthew Scudder series, Lawrence Block takes a peek inside the mind of a very calculating killer. The story starts with the kidnapping and eventual ransom of the wife of a heroin trafficker, Keenan Khoury. The kidnappers had obviously done their homework as Khoury was not going to involve the police. He does however call his brother Peter. After a series of calls to phone booths, presumably to determine no others were involved, the kidnappers set up the exchange. The ransom is paid and Keenan receives his wife back in several pieces. Unable to leave matters as they now stood, Keenan takes the advice of his brother and calls Matthew Scudder, who Peter remembers from one of his AA meetings.

Scudder, an ex-cop, show more has very little evidence to work with. Pounding the pavement near the scene of the kidnapping, Scudder is able to discern a rough number of criminals involved as well as a basic description of the vehicle used. Receiving help from his girlfriend Elaine, a young street urchin known only as TJ, and TJ's computer hacker friends the Kong's, Matthew is able to piece together the sequence of events leading to the death of Keenan Khoury's wife. Scudder also relies on his police training and gut instincts to determine this is not the first time the killers have struck. When another girl is kidnapped, Scudder is ready and sets up the exchange in - you guessed it - a graveyard.

I thought the detective work done by Scudder, especially considering the little he had to go on, was quite spectacular. Although most of the people he talked to and leads he followed up bore no fruit, I imagine that's the way it truly is in detective work. But he was persistent and eventually pieced enough together to find the killers. After that, he left it up to Keenan Khoury to exact justice, or at least his brand of it.

As I said earlier, this is the tenth in the Matthew Scudder line of books, however it is the first that I have read. I have found in previous series that reading the books in order lend more to each story, especially in the line of character progression. There were also many questions I had that were not answered in this book but were probably addressed in previous installments, such as: why did Scudder leave the police force? Did it have something to do with his drinking problem? How long had he been sober? What happened to make him want to get sober? How did he survive when he only worked occasionally?

One thing I did not like was all the talk about AA and the goings on at the meetings. I understand he was a recovering alcoholic, but sometimes he went to 3 meetings a day. I guess I don't understand AA enough, but I always thought that a person only went to a meeting when they were afraid they might start drinking again, and I never got the impression that Matthew was ever close to that. I understand it is an important part of his character, but I felt way too much time was spent on the subject. Overall, a very good detective novel and it makes me want to go back and read the previous installments. show less

The tenth installment in the Matthew Scudder series, Lawrence Block takes a peek inside the mind of a very calculating killer. The story starts with the kidnapping and eventual ransom of the wife of a heroin trafficker, Keenan Khoury. The kidnappers had obviously done their homework as Khoury was not going to involve the police. He does however call his brother Peter. After a series of calls to phone booths, presumably to determine no others were involved, the kidnappers set up the exchange. The ransom is paid and Keenan receives his wife back in several pieces. Unable to leave matters as they now stood, Keenan takes the advice of his brother and calls Matthew Scudder, who Peter remembers from one of his AA meetings.

Scudder, an ex-cop, show more has very little evidence to work with. Pounding the pavement near the scene of the kidnapping, Scudder is able to discern a rough number of criminals involved as well as a basic description of the vehicle used. Receiving help from his girlfriend Elaine, a young street urchin known only as TJ, and TJ's computer hacker friends the Kong's, Matthew is able to piece together the sequence of events leading to the death of Keenan Khoury's wife. Scudder also relies on his police training and gut instincts to determine this is not the first time the killers have struck. When another girl is kidnapped, Scudder is ready and sets up the exchange in - you guessed it - a graveyard.

I thought the detective work done by Scudder, especially considering the little he had to go on, was quite spectacular. Although most of the people he talked to and leads he followed up bore no fruit, I imagine that's the way it truly is in detective work. But he was persistent and eventually pieced enough together to find the killers. After that, he left it up to Keenan Khoury to exact justice, or at least his brand of it.

As I said earlier, this is the tenth in the Matthew Scudder line of books, however it is the first that I have read. I have found in previous series that reading the books in order lend more to each story, especially in the line of character progression. There were also many questions I had that were not answered in this book but were probably addressed in previous installments, such as: why did Scudder leave the police force? Did it have something to do with his drinking problem? How long had he been sober? What happened to make him want to get sober? How did he survive when he only worked occasionally?

One thing I did not like was all the talk about AA and the goings on at the meetings. I understand he was a recovering alcoholic, but sometimes he went to 3 meetings a day. I guess I don't understand AA enough, but I always thought that a person only went to a meeting when they were afraid they might start drinking again, and I never got the impression that Matthew was ever close to that. I understand it is an important part of his character, but I felt way too much time was spent on the subject. Overall, a very good detective novel and it makes me want to go back and read the previous installments. show less

Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series has been around since 1976 and is quite famous, so it is more than a bit embarrassing that I only discovered them in 2010. Block is a very prolific writer, and still manages not to sacrifice quality to quantity, at least not for the Matthew Scudder novels who through all of the ten volumes I have read so far have been among the best in crime fiction around.

A Walk Among the Tombstones, like the other novels in the series, has a noir-ish feel to it: it has a prevailing feeling of melancholy, it has the lone wolf crime-investigating protagonist, it has violence and lots of shady low-life characters, it has a somewhat laissez-faire attitude towards vigilante justice and in general heaps of moral show more ambiguity. But there are also a lot of elements you would not necessarily expect in any hard-boiled crime novel: the protagonist is a recovering alcoholic and in a steady relationships and the treatment of those two subjects covers a significant part of the novel, and it appears (at least to the layman like me) quite solid on investigative procedures – one of the things I particularly liked about A Walk Among the Tombstones is the way Scudder gradually (mostly with persistence and a good portion of luck) pieces together the identy of the main criminal from what at first appear no clues at all.

The only thing that grated on me was the character of TJ, a teenage street kid who is just too good to ring true: he turns out to be some nascent super-sleuth and all but solves the case for Scudder – the character just strained credibility beyond the breaking point for me. On the other hand, the rest of the cast is without exception well-drawn, particularly impressive were the rich drug merchant who hires Scudder and who struggles to escape the moral turpitude his profession has gradually sunk him in and the main criminal who is both spine-chillingly evil and despicably pathetic. Block also manages to keep up the reader’s interest in the ongoing development of his main protagonist Scudder even as he seems on the road of putting his inner demons to rest and come to terms with himself and his life. show less

A woman goes missing on a crowded Brooklyn street in the middle of the day. No one really see's much of anything and there are no clues. After paying half a million dollars in ransom her body is delivered back to her husband in little wrapped up pieces. Retired NY Detective Matt Scudder is hired by the victims husband to track down his wife's murders. Armed with only his knowledge from his years on the force and the assistance of several street smart friends, Matt races against the clock as the kidnappers strike again.

A Walk Among the Tombstones has a wonderful 1940's film noir atmosphere to it. Fast paced and well laid out, it's a treat of a mystery novel to read.

Curious to read this after seeing the promotions for the film on the internet and television; I enjoy the characters that Liam Neeson has chosen, lately, so I expected something similar. That is the film. With the novel, I found a similarity to Andrew Vaachs’ stories; the gritty feel of the streets, and the larger than life characters supporting the protagonist in his efforts to obtain justice. Legally or extra legally, Scudder struggles with the few clues given and mostly grinds out a solution. His struggles with alcoholism are well depicted and his ruminations on that and the case are also well done. The picture of an AA meeting, of which there are several, seem spot on. Another character important to the story also struggles with show more addiction and the attendant low self-esteem. An enjoyable read, I will probably read more in the series. show less

From Amazon:

Kenan Khoury’s wife went out grocery shopping and never came home. Alive, anyway. But because Kenan Khoury buys and sells drugs for a living he can’t go to the police for help. He goes to Matthew Scudder instead -- an alcoholic ex-cop and unlicensed private eye who will stop at nothing to bring the brutal killers to justice before another innocent woman falls beneath their knives.

My Thoughts:

I like the story, but it was written several years ago when cell phones and the internet were not available. You have to put yourself in that time frame and remember what it must have been like for detectives to do research at that time. The book was very well written although at times it seemed to drag but always picked back up. show more Block's characters are always interesting because of their moral codes and flaws...very complex with interesting personal takes on what is right and wrong and how that affects their handling of both personal and occupational problems. The ending was a bit of a let-down but nothing you can't live with. I haven't seen the movie but I understand it is excellent. show less