A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ve made a mistake: I started reading 8 Million Ways to Die before I write this review for A Stab in the Dark. So I apologize if the one leaks into the other. I’ll do my best. Not really sure what to say about Stab that I didn’t already say about the first three books in the Matthew Scudder series.
Matt’s an ex-cop and an unlicensed PI. He drinks and he solves crimes. This time he’s been asked to solve a crime that happened 9 years before. The usual theme: cops probably won’t bother, this is more about peace of mind than justice, etc. Along the way Matt makes a friend and of course you know how that’s going to go. Don’t worry, it’s not bloody, just sad.
Of course Scudder solves the case, with some leg work and some patience. This is a work of fiction, after all, so you knew he would. And so what if there’s a convenient coincidence that helps things out. And so what if there’s some justice at the end that’s maybe a little far-fetched. We don’t drink these drinks for our health, do we. You don’t exactly get drunk, reading these crime novels. But you can get a little buzzed.
Then again, it’s a sort-of existential buzz, a kind of comfortable-melancholy. I realize “angst” and “comfort” and all that compatible, but when you’re following around a guy who stays on the job even when no one wants him to, you identify with his tenacity. You keep reading, not because you want to know whodunnit, but because you feel like you’re where you’re supposed to be, curled up around your e-reader.