I'd already watched the movie "A Walk Among the Tombstones" not knowing it was based on the book of the same title by well known American author Lawrence Block. I was therefore very keen to buy the book and read for comparison. Already having Liam Neeson in my head as the main character, ex detective and private investigator Matthew Scudder, I was pleasantly surprised how much Liam's acting actually fitted with the written character, the mannerisms and dialogue being identical and in my opinion

After having read the Keller series and having seen the movie with Liam Neeson I was kind of interested in reading the basis of the movie.The book and the movie are actually pretty similar which makes me hope fora few more Scudder movies starring Neeson.The story is basicly about a kidnapping gone horribly wrong from the viewpoint of the husband who receives after paying the ransom his wife back albeit in pieces.It is the brother of the victims husband who finds Scudder due to their connection t...

Block was really taking Matt Scudder to some dark places in the early 90s, as if a psychotic killer hell bent on revenge and a couple of evil snuff film makers weren't enough hell for one man to face whilst trying with all his might to stay away from the hard stuff he's now faced with some joy killers who abduct and dissect women in broad daylight. Luckily he has a great group of friends and a growing sense of "home" in a light place to counteract the dark. But surely there's only so much of the...

"A Walk Among The Tombstones" is Lawrence Block's tenth Matthew Scudder book and was first published in 1992. This is a review of the book. I have not seen the movie. Scudder is an ex-cop who fell into the bars in Hell's Kitchen and had a hard time falling out of the bars. He does some private detective work without a license and often relies on his old NYPD connections in between going to AA meetings and he goes to a lot of them. This book is about a high-end drug dealer middleman who is very m...

A Walk Among the Tombstones is Lawrence Block's tenth Matthew Scudder book, first published in 1992. It’s twice as long as a few in the series I loved—it drags in the middle, it follows a pattern he sets in the last two books of crimes against women I think are too grisly/sensational for me, but much of it is really well written, and the scenes leading up to and "among the tombstones" is really, really well done. Block's ne0-noir tales don’t focus on action; they are about character, mainly esta...

A good Scudder novel as Matthew tries to find who killed a drug dealer's wife. Block gets lots of N.Y. atmosphere into this one. Well written and exciting. This was made into a decent Liam Neeson movie with a few major differences within the story. Recommended.

As detective Scudder gets older, the books he stars in get longer, each entry filled with more Scudder reflections, more peripheral characters, more comic relief, and—page for page—less mystery. Yet this is the strange part : Scudder is still stoic, New York City and its denizens are still vivid and grim, and the later crimes—though they take fewer pages to develop—are even more compelling than before. This is something only a master of genre like Block can do can do: he fulfills the requirement...

Book 10 in the Matt Scudder series first published 1992.This is hard hitting story about hard people living hard lives and is not recommended for readers with weak stomachs.There are no clichéd nice people here. Matt Scudder, an unlicensed private investigator and principal character, is a sober alcoholic, his love interest is a working prostitute, the principal victim is a drug trafficker and the two villains are outrageous psychopaths. There are no shrinking violets here. By any standards this...

I'm trying to figure out why they picked this one to make into a movie out of so many great Matt Scudder books. It's good, but the pace is a bit slow and frankly computer/phone hacking is never a terribly exciting action to read about or watch. I liked the evolution of the TJ character and the development of Matt's relationship with Elaine. I always enjoy the subplots and "real life" details in these books. Those alone made it another enjoyable read in the series.

A gang of psychopaths kidnap, rape, torture, and murder a drug dealer's wife after getting a ransom from him. The drug dealer hires Matthew Scudder to find the men for him. But was this the only time the psychopaths have struck? And will they strike again...?As the series goes by, Matthew Scudder goes up against sicker and sicker foes and gets put into worse and worse situations. Like usual, it makes the book a page turner because you can't wait to see him settle the bad guys's hash. The high po...

Dark, gritty and suspenseful. Matthew Scudder, private investigator, is hired by Kenan Khoury to find the men who kidnapped and killed his wife. Khoury happens to be a drug dealer so going to the police is out of the question and Scudder is his only chance to see the brutal killers brought to justice.

Block opens the book with an "English lullaby" that is pretty much guaranteed to cause sleeplessness in any child listening. It might scare them quiet, however: "baby, baby if he hears you/As he gallops past the house/Limb from limb at once he'll tear you/Just as a pussy tears a mouse." A gruesome and fitting way to start off one of Scudder's more horrific cases.A Walk is little more to the 3.5 area on the scudder scale of awesomeness. Scudder is back in usual form, but with some of the characte...

Good start and finish, but with a plodding, lifeless middle. Sadly, the middle half of this 10th Matt Scudder book is dull, repetitive crap, honestly. Very tedious to slog through. Even the famous "Lawrence Block genius dialogue" is not in evidence here. The whole of the middle of the book is just padding to tie the ending to the start. More pages = Higher price?Block has famously never talked of his possible AA membership, but I would strongly suggest that every book he wrote after Matt (Block)...

A Walk Among the Tombstones is a prime choice cut of detective fiction—heck, it’s maybe worth two or three or a whole car trunk full of packaged slices on ice of high quality writing. All the necessary tasty bits that make the Matthew Scudder novels so savory are on full display in this tenth entry into the series. Dialogue that sizzles, suspense that slow boils over the cooking pot, and characters as complex and heady as a carefully-prepared dish of steak tartare. This time around, Scudder take...

Right after finishing this book, I was at the grocery store with the wife. I was daydreaming while she got some meat from the butcher’s counter. She dropped a couple of wrapped packages of steaks and hamburger in the cart. I ran screaming out of the store. So thanks for that, Lawrence Block.Kenan Khoury is a heroin distributor whose wife Francine was kidnapped. Kenan followed instructions and paid a large ransom without contacting the cops, but Francine still got choppity-chopped and sent home l...

A young lady is snatched by a pair of lowlifes and held for ransom. Her husband, drug dealer Kenan Khoury, is forced to cough up four hundred thousand for her safe return. Upon payment, her husband is told to collect her from the trunk of a car not far from his home. Hoping to reunite with his missing wife, Kenan finds her in less than desirable shape.Distraught over his wife’s murder and unable to reach out to the police, Kenan turns to his brother Peter who suggests bringing in Matt Scudder, a...

Showing at cinemas now, the movie version! I must go! This book was my introduction to Lawrence Block's writing and I am not left feeling let down one bit. What a fantastic novel that gripped me from the start and did not let go. Exceptional crime fiction with everything you would want.What's the book about?The dark thriller from crime fiction master Lawrence Block, soon to be a film starring Liam Neeson in September.Big-time dope dealer Kenan Khoury is a wealthy man. One fine spring morning his...

finished all 16 matt scudder books (+1 short story collection). that's like 5,000 pages. and now i'm kinda depressed. well, a few thoughts before i drown myself in ice cream sandwich and crap TV: ignore all the 3 and 4 star ratings with the knowledge that the series is a solid fiver. like simenon's novels, (the first 16 of) stark's parker books, PKD's mindfuckedpulperies, etc, it's a mosaic which equals more than the sum of its parts. forget elaborate mysteries and plot-stuck crime books -- that...

For the last thirty years or so, I've been reading Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series which, for me at least, is hands down the best P.I. series that anyone's ever done. I mean no disrespect to authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, both of whom I admire greatly. But their body of work is relatively small by comparison. Block, on the other hand, created a fantastic character right out of the box, put him in a great, gritty setting, surrounded him with an excellent supporting ca...

Hard-boiled, heartfelt, and compelling.