When The Sacred Ginmill Closes (Matt Scudder Mystery) [Kindle Edition]

Matt is sitting in Morrissey's Bar when it is held up by two gunmen. The owners do not want to involve the authorities, but instead offer a reward of $10,000 for the identity of the two gunmen.

Tommy Tillary is a securities salesman who frequents Armstrong's Bar, one of Matt's favorite hangouts. Tommy's wife is stabbed to death in their home in Brooklyn during an apparent burglary. Tommy has an alibi for the crime since he was seen in public with his girl friend on that particular evening. However, the two burglars are caught and they claim Tommy hired them to burglarize his home for insurance purposes but they deny killing his wife. The police learn that Mrs. Tillary's estate is about to inherit $500,000 from an aunt and a life insurance policy will pay another $300,000 to Tommy. The police then see Tommy as having 800,000 reasons to kill his wife. Tommy asks Matt to find sufficient evidence to clear him and salvage his reputation.

Matt has another friend named Skip Devoe who is a partner in a noisy establishment on Ninth just below Fifty-Sixth. Skip keeps two sets of books and somebody steals the honest set. The books are being held for a ransom of $50,000 and Skip hires Matt to help retrieve them.

Matt now has three crimes to solve and he is working on all of them simultaneously, although he is seldom sober enough to fully concentrate on them. Matt is basically an honorable man who is struggling to keep his life together as he gets dragged down by alcoholism.

In spite of Matt's depressing lifestyle, the book does have its lighter side and the reader is entertained throughout by an array of Runyonesque characters who hang around the bars near Columbus Circle.

Scudder is asked to find the robbers of an after hours drinking club, and from this a story errupts concerning a bartenders stolen books and the murder of the wife of one of Scudder occasional drinking partners.

This is an important novel in the Scudder series as it sees a transition from the alcoholic Scudder to the non drinking one of the later novels. This marks a change in direction of the series, and develops the character in an interesting manner.

Lawrence Block's writing is as superb as ever, wiht every sentence sparkling with quality. The plot is believable and progresses at a quick pace. The only criticism of this novel is that the resolution seems be a little easy.

Overall, another fine Lawrence Block novel, and another good entry in the Matt Scudder series. But does Lawrence Block ever write a bad book?