Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Matt Scudder – Nostalgic NYC Noir

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

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My dad was a huge fan of the prolific author Lawrence Block. Block is best known for two series of books, one following ex NYC cop Matthew Scudder and his battles with alcohol and guilt, as well as a light-hearted series about the charming burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, who always seems to find himself on a job in a fabulous residence that also happens to contain a dead body. Most of the Scudder novels are included with my Audible subscription, so I have been enjoying revisiting […]

Nuns and Prostitutes

Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen

A Time to Scatter Stones by Lawrence Block

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I knocked out two quick books in the last day, neither of which won me over. Mariette in Ecstasy Judging by other reviews of this book, it appears as if I’m taking a rare middle ground stance. I thought the prose was beautiful and the scene descriptions lush and full. I enjoyed several individual pages. But with a big cast of characters and a central one the writer makes intentionally mysterious, none of it resonates. Plotting is marginal at best. It just lurches from one […]

A Twofer

The Night and the Music by Lawrence Block

Top of the Heap by Erle Stanley Gardner

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I knocked out two books over the weekend, both good enough in their own ways.   The Night and the Music 4 stars I’ve never really liked short stories but I like Matthew Scudder and, aside from a novella, this is all that I have left to get from his tale. And I enjoyed each story on its own in some way. The mystery ones were fun but the ones where we see Scudder’s humanity are often better. I do wish the Mick Ballou ones were longer […]

Last Call

A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block

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I know there’s a book of short stories and a novella to read but this is about as fitting of a conclusion to the Matthew Scudder saga as any. Block’s novel is a throwback to Scudder in the early days of his sobriety, and like his previous throwback novel When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, this too feels like a self-contained story and not an author trying to do a cash-grab prequel rife with easter eggs. In this one, Matt is struggling with his sobriety almost as much […]

The Killers

All The Flowers Are Dying by Lawrence Block

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I really do truly love this series. I didn’t expect to tear through it as fast as I did and now I’ve only got a few to read. Stupid pandemic. I’m also glad I read this series when I did. Had I gone through it in my early-20s, when I read my first Scudder, I don’t think I would have appreciated the solemn nature of Block’s famous detective, nor the shoe leather detective work he is known for. This is in many ways the last […]

On the Precipice

Hope to Die by Lawrence Block

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Ah yes, the year 2000. Right before The Troubles. Before 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, Recession 1, the Tea Party, melting coastlines,  Trump, and the coronavirus hailing Recession II. Matthew Scudder has emerged from the social decay of 70s and 80s Manhattan to make a decent life for itself in a city that’s enjoying its final moments of pre-9/11 glory. But who knows what trouble lurks in the hearts of men? The Scudder does! This time with (sigh) yet another serial killer. These have always been the […]



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