THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9411010511
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Lawrence Block, prolific and celebrated author of more than 40 novels, adds No. 12 to his Matt Scudder detective series with A Long Line of Dead Men.
Scudder, the ex-Brooklyn cop and recovering alcoholic, is still working as an unlicensed Manhattan private eye. He's divorced, the father of two grown sons he never sees, and he lives with an ex-call girl (yes, with a heart of gold) whose wise investments, cunning business and common sense often keep them both afloat.
In this episode, Matt is hired by a member of the secret ``Club of 31,'' a centuries-old society composed of 31 men who meet once a year for dinner. Naturally, over the years, death has reduced the complement. When only one is left, the survivor selects the next 30 members. It appears that in the current group, however, club members are dying young and at an alarming rate. Matt agrees that someone is deliberately thinning out the herd . . . with murder.
If the plot sounds familiar, it should. It closely resembles some chestnuts by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie. In fact, Dead Men may prove disappointing to Block/Scudder fans, who are accustomed to more originality and hard-edged violence.
But Block manages to get by with enough crisp writing and nifty characters (old friends like TJ, the sly street kid who saved Matt's skin in A Walk Among the Tombstones, and the rotten, wholly entertaining career criminal Mick Ballou) to keep you going.
And, of course, there's the hero. A running theme of Dead Men, as in other Scudder books, is Matt's all too human propensity for addiction. The drinking monkey on Matt's back teases him constantly. He resists by attending AA meetings, sometimes daily. Block shows insight into Matt's alcoholism by portraying his hyper-awareness of alcohol and of other people's drinking habits; he easily detects the smell of peppermint schnapps on an elderly woman's breath.
Add to this addiction another: Matt's inability to let go of Lisa, the widow of a murder victim from a past case, who always seems to be there when he calls. Lucky for him. Just as lucky that Elaine (heart of gold) cuts him an amazing amount of slack, no questions asked.
Block seems to be asking his readers to do the same. Chances are, they will.
- MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is a staff librarian. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Lawrence Block continues his Matt Scudder detective series with ``A
Long Line of Dead Men.''
by CNB