A STAB IN THE DARK by Lawrence Block

GRADE: B+

*Book 4 of the Matthew Scudder series*

It's going to get harder and harder writing fresh reviews for these Lawrence Block novels. Once again he has written a solid piece of detective mystery fiction in this latest installment in his Matthew Scudder series, about an ex-cop who lives a lonely life in a hotel room in Manhattan and does "favors" for people as an unlicensed private investigator. In this novel, Scudder takes on a nine-year old cold case after a serial killer is finally caught, and confesses to all of his suspected killings except for one. Now that dead girl's father can't rest until he finds out the truth behind her murder, which is now nearly a decade old. 

I'm four novels into the Scudder series and I've yet to be disappointed. It has another compelling mystery, layers of Matt's character continues to be laid, and the writing continues to be solid. It's impressive how consistent Block has been so far. I love how throughout the series you start to slowly realize, along with Matthew himself, how serious his drinking problem really is, although he continues to deny it. If this series gets even better than this, Lawrence Block might become one of my favorites!