Hope to Die

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

Here's a treat for mystery fans: a new Matt Scudder story with Block on the top of his form. Scudder is one of the most sympathetic private eyes in the genre, a believable character with a private life that is as interesting as his cases. This one grips from the first pages with its account of a gruesome double murder, one that is too close to Scudder for comfort for the victims had attended the same dinner and concert at the Lincoln Centre as Scudder and his wife Elaine. That night Byrne and Susan Hollander are killed and robbed, the crime committed with a sick violence that hits the headlines and shocks even the New York police. Their daughter, Kristin, inherits investments, insurance and their valuable brown stone house but her new wealth hardly begins to compensate for the loss of her loved parents. When the bodies of the killers are found in a sleazy flat the police are only too happy to declare the case closed, but when Block is asked to look into this apparently straightforward crime the mystery starts deliciously to unfold. Running through the book, as counterpoint to his investigation, is an episode with his two adult sons. They are not exactly estranged but, like any divorced father, Scudder rarely sees them and suspects that he will never again be part of their lives. Block writes brilliantly. In the telephone conversations between Scudder and his sons, there is no melodrama and no sentimentality; he never once strikes a false note. All the baggage that comes with a divorce and a more successful second marriage is implicit rather than spelled out and all the more effective for that. Block's style is clear with simple, short sentences, humour where it counts and a masterly control of tension. A winner. (Kirkus UK)

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