THE SINS OF THE FATHERS by Lawrence Block

GRADE: B

*Book 1 of the Matthew Scudder Series*

Solid start to what I've heard is a good series! I've been planning on reading the Matthew Scudder books for years and now I've started. Matthew Scudder is an ex-New York City cop who quit the force after accidentally killing a young girl in a shootout. It shatters his marriage and relationship with his sons, and he moves into a Manhattan hotel room, where he makes money by doing "favors" for people who need the help of someone with some investigative skills. Matt has those in spades. In this novel (the first of the series), Matt is hired by a man who wants to reopen the closed case of the grisly murder of his daughter, and learn the truth.

Matthew seems like a great character and I'm anxious to learn more about him. In detective and crime novels, I'm less interested in the actual mystery and more interested in how the mystery affects the character, the world around him/her, and vice versa. The strongest aspects of this book are the richness of the characters and the ease of their dialogue. There's not a lot of delving deep into the character of Scudder, but it's definitely a good tease. Can't wait to learn more in subsequent books. 

This book reminds me a lot of George Pelecanos's work! I wouldn't be surprised if Pelecanos was highly influenced by Block. There's a poetic simplicity and a love of the people that I found in this book that I saw many times in Pelecanos's writing.