The Sins of the Fathers

Hardboiled Block
Review of the LB Productions eBook (September 9, 2020) of the original Dell paperback (1976).

He sat for a few minutes in silence. I took out my flask and had another drink. Drinking was against his religion. Well, murder was against mine.

The Sins of the Fathers introduces Lawrence Block's longest running series character, the former NYPD detective Matthew Scudder. Scudder quit the force and abandoned his family after a shooting incident where an innocent girl was killed by a ricochet bullet. He lives a downbeat life in a Hell's Kitchen hotel making the rounds of the neighbourhood bars and churches while doing the occasional "favour" in exchange for monetary "gifts."

He does not have an actual private detective licence. show more He tithes 10% of his income to church poor boxes, sends money home to his ex-wife and sons and drinks quite a lot of liquor and coffee. Several books into the series he quits drinking and regular attendance at AA meetings becomes a central focus of the plots.

The books are set in a noir world where the innocents suffer and the guilty often escape justice. Scudder's own methods are not quite legal and certainly the early novels are set in the world of the Serpico era of NYPD bribery and corruption. Scudder get many of his "cases" through referrals from his former NYPD colleagues, for which he pays them the price of a "hat", a code for a $25 bribe ($138.17 in 2024 market value).

See cover at https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/931/727/1512727931.0.m.jpg
Front cover of the original 1976 Dell paperback edition. Image sourced from Biblio.

In The Sins of the Fathers, Scudder agrees to investigate the death of a young woman who was apparently killed by her housemate, who hanged himself while in police custody shortly afterwards. His client is the woman's stepfather who feels the guilt of the loss of the daughter who abandoned a Utica home and college to live a carefree life in New York City. Scudder's search uncovers the hidden lives of two young people who were scarred by their earlier experiences. It also raises a suspicion that the actual murderer was never brought to justice.

Trivia and Links
I read a considerable number of Lawrence Block books in my pre-GR and pre-reviewing days. Probably 40 or so out of the 100+ that are available. That included all of the Matt Scudder books, several of the Bernie Rhodenbarrs, several of the Evan Tanners, several of the Kellers, a dozen or so standalones and some of the memoirs. There were even a few of the earlier pulp novels which were originally published under pseudonyms. This re-read will be the beginning of a further look back at some of those.

Lawrence Block (June 24, 1938 - ) considers himself retired these days, but still maintains an occasional newsletter with the latest issued in August 2024. He self-publishes some of his earlier works that have otherwise gone out of print, using his own LB Productions imprint. This current eBook edition of The Sins of the Fathers is one of those. show less

I started re-reading the Matthew Scudder books last year and haven't made a lot of progress, unfortunately. Like al of my favorite mystery novels, Block's books are less concerned with solving a murder than they are showing us the inner workings of the main character. And what a main character. Scudder's development mirrors that of his writer in a lot of ways. When the series begins, they were both alcoholics struggling to make it through the day. We get to watch them make the first tentative steps toward recovery and then (not without some backsliding, give up drink entirely. It all plays out in one of the meaner portrayals of New York I've read. I really think that the development of the Scudder character will be counted as a show more significant literary achievement. Block just needs some critics to "discover" him the way the New Wave "discovered" Hitchcock. show less

A pretty young woman is found in a pool of blood; she’s been slashed repeatedly with a sharp instrument. Her male roommate is found on the street nearby, covered in her blood, exposing himself and babbling incoherently. Arrested for her murder, he hangs himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's father has come to Matthew Scudder, an ex-cop and unlicensed private investigator, hoping for answers; he’s been somewhat estranged from his daughter and he wants to know how she came to be in this setting. Scudder begins looking into her background, and finds much more than he expected.

Wow. I’ve been a fan of Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr series (Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, et al) for quite some time, but show more had not read any of the Matt Scudder series until now. This series is darker than the “Burglar” books. Block is a master of suspense, and he writes a tight novel. There is nary a word out of place or an extraneous phrase.

What I really loved about the book was Scudder himself. He’s contemplative and relatively quiet, not given to macho acts of aggression (though he’s not above teaching a lesson or two to a bad guy). I like the way he deals with other people – respectful, even when he’s applying pressure. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and while he feels comfortable rendering judgment, he recognizes the slippery slope he’s on when he takes matters into his own hands.

I’ll definitely be reading more of this series. I want to get to know Matthew Scudder better. show less

Matthew Scudder, guilt-ridden former cop, divorced father of two boys, and investigator without benefit of license, drinks his bourbon in black coffee, and tithes from the "gifts" his clients give him in lieu of fees. A bereaved father asks Scudder to investigate the last few years of his estranged daughter's life. Not her murder. That was solved--case closed almost immediately with the arrest of her blood-stained roommate and his subsequent jail cell suicide. Scudder gets involved in ways that aren't entirely necessary to his mission, and finds out things no one asked to know. A terrific beginning to the series.

This is the second Matt Scudder book I’ve read and I really like this character. Retired from the police he agrees to look into the murder of a prostitute in Greenwich Village for her father. The police have arrested her gay roommate, case closed for them, and then he kills himself in his jail cell after confessing to murdering her. But the facts don’t add up and Matt talks to friends, neighbors, relatives and acquaintances till he figures out exactly what happened to them.

Matt Scudder is a definite son-of-a-bitch, when he needs to be. He lives in a dark, twisted world where cops are dirty because... well... because that's the way it is. When he was a cop he believed that, if someone gave you money, you took it. Only a sap wouldn't. In this novel, when he was feeling sh*tty, he acted like a mark until someone tried to mug him, just so he could beat the guy down. And then he robbed the mugger, for good measure.

Not much actually happens in this one. It's a straight forward investigation. He's hired... well, no. He's not a private investigator, he doesn't have a license. What he does is, he does favours for people and they give him "thank you" gifts. Like a high-priced call girl. So in this story, he "does a show more favour" for a man, tracking down the information to be able to provide this man with an explanation, a description, of what his wayward daughter had been like, before she was murdered. A snapshot of her life and what led up to her death. In the process, he does that and more. In the process, he ends up finding out that some whores actually do have hearts of gold. And some other people are just plain sh*t.

Scudder lives in a dark, dirty, nasty world. And it's not that world that makes him interesting. In fact, I don't think that world is what makes any hard-boiled detective fiction worth reading. It's the lens we see it through. Our tour guide. Sam Spade, Phillip Marlowe, Nick Charles, Matt Scudder... it's these men who give us a unique perspective on those dark corners of big city life.

I enjoy Scudder's perspective. By logical extension, I enjoy Lawrence Block's perspective.

Good book. Well worth the read. show less

There's currently a Matthew Scudder film playing in theaters ( A Walk Among the Tombstones) so I thought it was time I acquainted myself with this series of books. I've had this one on my kindle for months, and now I'm sorry I waited so long to read it.

This is the Scudder debut novel, written in 1976. He's an ex-NYPD cop who lost his taste for police work after an off-duty arrest went horribly awry. It's clear he's fighting personal demons from guilt over the event. He's a complicated guy who likes his drink, says he's a non-believer but tithes and stops in church to light candles for the dead, but also is not above bending the rules and meting out his own form of justice. He now works as a PI who, because he's unlicensed, "does show more favors" for clients and will accept a "gift" of money.

In this case, a young prostitute is murdered and there's no question who the murderer is: her roommate is found running down the street covered in blood and admits his guilt. He commits suicide in his cell 2 days later, and the police consider the case closed. The girl's father hires Scudder to investigate not the who or how but why she was killed. The rest of the novel focuses on the investigation as Scudder uncovers the truth. I'm not yet familiar with the series as a whole, but this one was more cerebral than action-packed.

I thought the story and the character of Matthew Scudder was terrific and downloaded the second book before I'd finished this one. I've heard they only get better so I know I'm in for a treat. show less