**Spoilers!**I've been reading the Scudder novels for 20 years or so and count Block as one of my favorite writers. This seemed more like a James Patterson novel, gruesome and salacious. It has graphic sex, torture, and murder scenes from the killer's point of view, and those chapters are written in italics, which I found annoying. I finally just skipped those chapters and read the Scudder POV. The serial killer kills young boys and that was particularly nauseating. It just didn't seem like a Scudder novel. The last third of the novel picked up, but then ended with a graphic rape scene of Elaine. The writing is not as tight as his other novels. If you want one with the same basic story line, read A Ticket to the Boneyard. That one is much more like the Block writing style I've admired for so many years. I actually threw Flowers in the trash when I finished it.

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In 'HOPE TO DIE,' the previous Matt Scudder whodunnit, it seemed that the killer died in a house fire. But the sociopath seems to have been too dangerous to die so easily.

The first portion of the book has AB (the sociopath from the last book) describing how he killed three boys and set up a man to be convicted for those crimes. Then he does the most hideous thing of befriending the convicted killer before that man's death by lethal injection -- just to savor his control.

Then AB returns to NYC and starts a new type of murder; befriending women and then killing them. As AB describes his enjoyment during the death of a woman, the reader becomes unsettled with the calm joy of the man at his work.

I've just completed books by 2 New Yorkers (Lawrence Block and Dick Wolf) and both are very comfortable describing the gritty streets of NYC. I'd also like to make a comment about the narrator: Alan Sklar. Much of this book is told from the sociopath's POV (inside his head). Sklar was incredible; it raised my level of fear considerably. I got so caught up in the sociopath's horrific behaviors and thoughts that I had to turn off the player for awhile.

I rarely give a mystery/thriller novel 5 stars but between the author and the narrator, I didn't feel I could offer fewer stars.

Matthew Scudder Series
14. Everybody Dies (1998)
15. Hope to Die (2001)
** 16. All the Flowers Are Dying(2005)

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lawrence block is always great

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another great matthew scudder book. i've never been disappointed by Block and this is no exception. story of a serious, serial killer with a long list of "credits" to his gruesome resume.

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