IN THE MIDST OF DEATH

I tore through IN THE MIDST OF DEATH (1976) in a matter of hours. It's the third novel in Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series. I've read several other Scudder novels and I've enjoyed each and every one of them but I have not read them in order of publication so I found Scudder's situation in this novel a bit jarring at first.

In later books, Scudder is a recovering alcoholic, constantly dealing with his own personal demons and the oh-so tempting promise of release and escape found in a bottle of booze. But in MIDST, Scudder is just beginning his long, slow slide into alcoholic oblivion. He drinks. A lot. But he's still capable of solving a well plotted murder mystery.

A high-priced call girl (with equally high priced clients) is murdered. Her body is found in the apartment of an NYPD detective, a cop with dreams of being the next Frank Serpico by exposing the corruption within the department. He's innocent, of course, but he turns to ex-cop Scudder to find the real killer and escape the frame-up.

Scudder does so but not before a couple of other people are killed. Along the way, Scudder beds the wife of his client, not always the smartest move in the old private detective playbook.

The mystery here is a good one and you get a chance to see Block setting up this durable character for his ultimate fall and later redemption. A good, solid "quick and dirty" mystery novel in an outstanding series that is best read in the order in which the books were  originally published.

Oh, and pay no attention to the cover art of the Avon paperback edition pictured above. It's designed purely to sell the book (and it does an admirable job of doing so), but no such scene occurs in the book.

Recommended.