Another great one from the master. The Matthew Scudder character continues to evolve. He's mean, he's drunk, he doesn't care about anything. But somehow you find yourself caring about him.

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Another gritty crime novel in the Matt Scudder series. I decided to read some of the titles I have missed. This is the second novel in the series after The Sins of the Fathers which I just recently finished. In this one, a small-time crook, Spinner Joblon, acquainted with Scudder shows up with some money and an offer for Scudder to hold onto an envelope for him and open it only if Joblon is killed. Seems that Joblon had been blackmailing a group of people and feels that he may be running out of luck. But if he does get killed, he only wants revenge on the party that did the deed and not on the others he had been extorting. Three people were paying Joblon off. The first had a daughter who committed a hit and run when she was younger resulting in the death of a three-year-old. The next was a woman who had been in porn films when younger and was now married to a prominent man. The last was a wealthy man who planning to run for governor and who had sexual relations with prepubescent boys. So when Joblon gets killed and dumped in the river, Scudder tries to draw the killer out by continuing to blackmail the three. Well his plan ended up being more successful than he bargained for!

This was another very good entry in the Scudder series. I have read several others in this series but still need to fill in the gaps which I will be looking forward to.

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