Matthew Scudder

The hooker was young, pretty … and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again-that's where Matthew Scudder comes in. But this assignment carries the unmistakable stench of sleaze and perversion, luring Scudder into a sordid world of phony religion and murderous lust where children must die for their parents' most unspeakable sins.

Jerry Broadfield thinks he's a good cop. But now he's been charged with extortion-and his former buddies in the NYPD would like to see him laid out on a morgue slab for squealing to a committee on police corruption. Suddenly, he's got a lot of enemies, and when a dead call girl turns up in his apartment, his troubles get even bigger. Broadfield screams "setup," but nobody believes him-except ex-policeman, now unlicensed PI Matthew Scudder. Because Broadfield turned traitor, no cop is going to give Scudder any help with this investigation; so Scudder is on his own. But finding a killer among the stoolie cop's sleazebag connections is going to be as difficult as pouring a cold beer in hell-where some of Broadfield's enemies would like to see Scudder if he gets himself in too deep.

Nine long years have passed since the killer last struck-nine years since eight helpless young women were brutally slaughtered by an icepick-wielding maniac. The trail grew cold, and the book was unofficially closed on a serial killer who stopped killing. But now the "Icepick Prowler" has confessed-but only to seven of the killings. Not only does he deny the eighth but he also has an airtight alibi. Barbara Ettinger's family had almost come to accept that the young woman was the victim of a random killing. Now they must grapple with the shocking revelation that not only was her death disguised to look like the serial killer's work but her murderer may have been someone she knew and trusted. Matthew Scudder has been hired to finally bring her slayer to justice, setting the relentless detective on the trail of a death almost a decade old, searching for a vicious murderer who is either long gone, long dead-or patiently waiting to kill again.

Battling the bottle one day at a time, ex-cop, sometime PI Matthew Scudder finds that next to staying sober, staying alive seems easy. But in the mean streets of New York City it never is. Not for the prostitute who wanted out and got her beautiful self slashed to ribbons. Not for a pimp named Chance who is betting his life that the broken-down detective can find her murderer. And not for Matthew Scudder-just trying to stay alive in a city that knows nothing better than how to die.

When ex-cop Matt Scudder thought back on the summer of '75, two faces emerged from behind the smoky haze of a half dozen boozy saloons that made up his beat-Skip Devoe and Tommy Tillary-two bar flies he wouldn't have given a second thought to in the bright light of day. Yet they and their troubles were the reason that moved him a little farther out of the bleary-eyed mess that had become his life.

Private detective Matt Scudder investigates a series of kidnappings that always end in brutal murder. Best-selling author Lawrence Block takes us into the seedier back alleys and side-streets of New York City, rendering his subject with a gritty realism.

In New York City, there is little sense and no rules, and those who fly the highest often come crashing down the hardest.A deranged, derelict, crazed Vietnam vet has been arrested for gunning down successful young lawyer Glenn Holtzmann at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue-and the suspect's brother wants unlicensed private investigator Matthew Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But Scudder's curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart … and to passions and secrets that could destroy everything he loves.In this unmerciful metropolis, no one is truly innocent-including Matthew Scudder.

In his popular Matt Scudder mystery series, Edgar and Shamus Award-winner, Lawrence Block, creates riveting stories set in the hardened streets of New York City. His suspenseful tale, Even the Wicked, portrays recovering alcoholic, P.I. Matt Scudder, hot on the trail of a theatrical and twisted criminal. A demented serial killer, who calls himself "The Will of the People," has gained a wide audience by sending warning letters to the Daily News. When "Will" names a prominent criminal defense attorney as his next victim, Matt suddenly finds himself protecting an old associate. Matching his wits against the wily murderer, Matt must race to uncover "Will's" identity before he loses his lawyer friend. Proclaimed a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, Lawrence Block skillfully captures the street-smart language and lifestyles of his home city. Narrator Mark Hammer provides the perfect voice for eccentric characters and evil-minded lawbreakers.

Best-selling author Lawrence Block transports you to New York City to walk the shadowy back streets with P.I. Matt Scudder, ex-cop and recovering alcoholic. In Everybody Dies, Matt is finally leading a comfortable, almost respectable life-until he helps an unlikely friend uncover a nameless enemy. The Big Apple seems to be mellowing now that the crime rate is down and gentrification is sweeping the old neighborhoods. But when a hoodlum buddy from the past asks Matt to investigate the murders of two employees, the spruced-up sidewalks seem as mean as ever. Suddenly Matt finds himself in a world where every step leads him through a mine field, and no man's survival can be taken for granted. Well-crafted characters, action-packed plots, and gritty, realistic settings have earned Lawrence Block multiple Edgar and Shamus Awards. With his dramatic performance, narrator Mark Hammer expertly captures all the restless rhythms and street-smart language.

Matthew Scudder is finally leading a comfortable life, one of stability and respectability, even the New York streets don't look so mean anymore. He's married to a woman he loves, and wonder of wonders, he's actually gotten around to becoming an officially licensed private investigator. Then all hell breaks loose. Matthew' s best friend from Hell's Kitchen asks for his help, and Scudder' s world is suddenly turned upside down once again. Instead of a beautiful world where old neighborhoods are being spruced up, Scudder discovers he's living in a war zone, and New York is a random universe where no one's survival can be taken for granted, not even his own.

Twenty-five years ago, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block introduced his acclaimed unlicensed private investigator to the New York crime scene. Today Matthew Scudder remains one of the most complex, richly human protagonists in noir fiction -- as he pursues a faceless adversary with a unique talent and taste for murder. When Byrne and Susan Hollander are killed in a brutal home invasion, the whole city catches its collective breath. A few days later the killers turn up dead behind a locked door in Brooklyn. One has killed his partner, then himself. The city sighs with relief. The cops close the case. Matt and Elaine Scudder were in the same room with the Hollanders hours before their deaths. In spite of himself, Scudder is drawn to the Hollander case. The closer he looks, the more he senses the presence of a third man, a puppet master who manipulated his two accomplices, then cut their strings when he was done with them. The villain who looms in the shadows is one of Block's most inspired creations, cold and diabolical, murdering for pleasure and profit. Nobody but Scudder even suspects he exists -- and he's not done killing. He's just getting started....

The city caught its collective breath when upscale couple Byrne and Susan Hollander were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Now, a few days later, the killers themselves have turned up dead behind the locked door of a Brooklyn hellhole-one apparently slain by his partner in crime who then took his own life. There's something drawing Matthew Scudder to this case that the cops have quickly and eagerly closed: a nagging suspicion that a third man is involved, a cold, diabolical puppet master who manipulates his two accomplices, then cuts their strings when he's done with them. No one but Scudder even suspects he exists. And his worst fear is that the guy is just getting started ...

Lawrence Block has won many awards for his best-selling novels featuring New York private investigator Matthew Scudder. In Hope to Die, as Scudder investigates two pairs of murders, he begins to suspect that they are the work of the same diabolical mind.

Edgar Award-winning author Lawrence Block has been named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. A Drop of the Hard Stuff continues Block's popular series starring New York private detective and recovering alcoholic Matthew Scudder. Scudder is already struggling with his sobriety when his friend and fellow AA member Jack Ellery is found murdered. Now the only thing keeping Scudder from the bottle is his obsession with finding the culprit.

Lawrence Block's seventeen Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world-along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and here is Volume One. Includes the following stories: "Out the Window," "A Candle for the Bag Lady," "By the Dawn's Early Light," "Batman's Helpers," "The Merciful Angel of Death," and "The Night and the Music."

Lawrence Block's seventeen Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world-along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and here is volume two which includes the following stories: Looking for David, Let's Get Lost, A Moment of Wrong Thinking, Mick Ballou Looks at the Blank Screen, and One Last Night at Grogan's.

Lawrence Block's seventeen Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world-along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and it's all here, from a pair of late-70's novelettes (Out the Window and A Candle for the Bag Lady) through "By the Dawn's Early Light" (Edgar) and "The Merciful Angel of Death" (Shamus), all the way to "One Last Night at Grogan's," a moving and elegiac story never before published. Some of these stories appeared in such magazines as Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, and Playboy. The title vignette, "The Night and the Music," was written for a NYC jazz festival program; another, "Mick Ballou Looks at the Blank Screen," has appeared only as the text of a limited-edition broadside. Several stories look back from the time of their writing, with Scudder recounting events from his former life as a cop, first as a patrolman partnered with the legendary Vince Mahaffey, then as an NYPD detective leading a double life. Along with these eleven stories and novelettes, The Night and The Music includes a list of the seventeen novels in chronological order, and an author's note detailing the origin and bibliographical details of each of the stories. Brian Koppelman, the prominent screenwriter and director (Solitary Man, Ocean's Thirteen, Rounders) and a major Matt Scudder fan, has sweetened the pot with an introduction.

Matthew Scudder gets hired by a fellow bar patron to prove his innocence. Salesman Tommy Tillary is a forty-five-year-old philanderer with a Manhattan girlfriend and a Brooklyn wife. So when Tommy becomes a suspect in the murder of his wife, it's up to Matt to find the real killer.

Matthew Scudder investigates the brutal murder of a woman known as the "bag lady." A seemingly homeless woman, she turns out to have distributed her substantial wealth in a complex will naming random strangers. Where did the money come from? Why was she living in such reduced circumstances? And why in the world did she choose these beneficiaries-the owner of a local newspaper stand, a neighbor she rarely spoke to, the detective himself-when her real friends and acquaintances got nothing at all? And how is all this linked to her murder?

Step into the shoes of Matthew Scudder, one of the titular Batman's helpers. And how does he help Batman? He's part of a group of people hired by Warner Brothers to confiscate pirated Batman products from vendors selling them on the streets of New York. From the Night and the Music collection.

After a night out with friends, Matthew Scudder is reminded of an enigmatic case he had while still working as uniformed policeman. The case in question involves the suicide of a devout Catholic man in front of his wife and children... or was it a murder?