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Book Review of In the Midst of Death (Matthew Scudder, Bk 3)

In the Midst of Death (Matthew Scudder, Bk 3)
perryfran avatar reviewed on + 1224 more book reviews


I read a couple of Block's Matthew Scudder novels about 15 years ago and remember enjoying them a lot. Not sure why it took me so long to read another. One of my motivations was that there is a new movie out of A Walk Among the Tombstones with Liam Neeson playing Scudder. I'm looking forward to seeing it. In the Midst of Death was a great example of a hard-case crime novel in the vain of Mickey Spillane. I really enjoyed it! It told the story of a murdered prostitute who was blackmailing a police officer who was working with police internal affairs about police corruption. Scudder is hired by the police officer when he is framed for the murder of the prostitute. The novel has hard-drinking Scudder, an ex-police officer working as an unlicensed PI, at his best digging into why the prostitute was killed, who was on her list of customers, how some politicians are involved, why the police officer was working with internal affairs, and on and on. Scudder also gets involved with the police officer's wife along the way. Overall, a great throw back to the hard-core detective novel!