Book Review: The Sins of the Fathers

Reviewed By: John Purcell, Jr. - RAM

The Sins of the Fathers     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Lawrence Block
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Matthew Scudder # 1
Matt Scudder, as you all know, is an ex-cop with a drinking... uh..
habit. Haunted by an accidental death of a child in the line of
duty, and split from his wife and kids, he lives in a motel in
Manhattan, occasionally taking on private eye employment, despite
his lack of license. In "The Sins of the Fathers", Lawrence Block's
first Matt Scudder book, he is hired by the step-father of a
recently murdered prostitute, to find out, not who murdered her, but
who she was in her last years, and what she had become. You see, her
family lost touch with her when she dropped out of college, moved to
New York City, and stopped communicating with them, other than
through an occasional post-card. When the man she lived with is
charged with her bloody murder, and then commits suicide in jail,
the police consider it an open and shut case. Scudder, as you might
expect, while pursuing her background, and the background of the
accused, doesn't find the official conclusion so pat. The problem
is, he hasn't been hired to solve a crime, only to give some closure
to a grieving parent.

Having read a few of the Block Scudder series, out of order, I was interested to discover the genesis of the character. I expected a more reserved, less volatile manifestation of the Scudder of "8 Million Ways to Die", "A Ticket to the Boneyard" and "A Long Line of Dead Men". I was surprised to see little hint of the reformed alcoholic, but that makes sense. He had to come from somewhere. However, I was mildly surprised to see the harder, darker side of Scudder, a side that's not so obvious in the later books, where dealing with his alcoholism seems to have mellowed him.

This is a short book (186 pages in paperback), but it packs a solid mystery, and the Socratic inquiry you expect in a good PI narrative, all leading to a disturbing yet satisfying ending. I want to fill in a big gap, so I'm on to the next one, "Time to Murder and Create".

John Purcell, Jr. - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, John Purcell, Jr. - RAM

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