Monday, May 29, 2017

Solid Building Blocks to a Series!

The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder, #1)The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once upon a time I picked up a Lawrence Block book. I liked it, so I tried another. The next one was from his Matthew Scudder series. Now I'm hooked.

Scudder debuted in 1976's The Sins of the Fathers as an alcoholic ex-cop who had recently quit the NYPD and left his family after accidentally causing the death of a young girl. Living in a rent-controlled hotel room in Hell's Kitchen, he earns his living as an unlicensed private investigator—or, as he puts it, "doing favors for friends." - Wikipedia

Scudder's not a prototypical "lovable" guy and yet I love him. I wanna be best buds with him. What I would give to hang out, have a beer and shoot the shit with this guy! Oh the stories he could tell!

Block has spun a solid yarn here with The Sins of the Fathers. Some might call it a yawn, as there's not a lot of action considering this is a crime story. I admit the pace is a bit slow and there's no explosive climax.

However, this is still great reading. I was totally engaged with the character and the story. Everything felt very real. I chalk that up to Mr. Block's chops. You can tell the dude's done some writing prior to this point. I'm definitely moving on to Time to Murder and Create!

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