A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The last of the Scudder novels, unless Block decides to write another. Goes without saying, right? But what we’ve got here is another flash-back novel, in much the same way that When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes was a flashback novel written the series ended.
Hard to follow? Let me try again. Eight million Ways to Die was written to be the final Matthew Scudder mystery, the one where he gives up drinking. From what I’ve heard, Block didn’t think his main character was an alcoholic until Matt decided all by himself to get sober. But then Block went and wrote another book about Scudder, and since alcohol was part of his character, he had to set it in the past.
And really, if you read Hope to Die and All the Flowers are Dying, that’s as good an ending to the series as you can get… but, again, Block went and wrote one more Scudder novel. And since the post-Eight Million Scudder is a recovering alcoholic, it makes sense that he’d have to make that prominent for Scudder, and hence the flashback.
This is all theory and speculation on my part. The point is: we’re either going to get an even newer Matt in the next few years, or we’ll get more flashback Scudders… or we won’t get any more at all. Goes without saying, right?
For me, reading my way through these books over the last three months, it has been an education. Character and plot, mostly, but also setting and mood. The Matthew Scudder series is the complete package, and given Block’s unparalleled talents (not to mention productivity) he delivers more than he needs to. I don’t know that I’ll be re-reading these books again (I’m not one much for that sort of thing) but then again, I just might: you can never get too much education. And if Block, and Scudder, have spoiled me for lesser books about lesser characters, I guess that’s just the way things go sometimes.