ISBN-13: 9780316127332
At the request of Mulholland Books, an ARC TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest review.
Synopsis (borrowed from B&N): Grandmaster Lawrence Block brings his greatest character, Matthew Scudder, back into action in his most personal case.
Matthew Scudder is finally on the straight and narrow when he runs into “High-Low” Jack Ellery, a childhood friend from the Bronx. In Scudder, Jack sees the moral man he might have become. In Jack, Scudder sees the hard-won sobriety he hopes to achieve.
Then Ellery, following to the letter the dictates of Alcoholics Anonymous’ infamous twelve steps, is shot down while attempting to atone for past sins, and Scudder is drawn into a murder investigation that threatens to upset his path toward recovery—and get him killed in the process.
My Thoughts and Opinion: When I initially read the synopsis of this book, I felt that it was definitely a match for me, being in the genre of suspense, which is my favorite preference of books to read. It was also the first book that I had read by this author and also not realizing that this novel was one of many in a series. Before stating my thoughts and opinion, I would like to add a caveat. I did do some research on different sites such as B&N and GR to read other reviews and the majority were very good. I say this because not every book is the same for every reader. And the following is my opinion, and my opinion only. I read 50+ pages and had to put this book aside. I felt that it was an effort to continue to read. To me, it was very dry reading, whereas nothing truly “grabbed” me. I am not sure if it could be that I never read any of the books in the series or any other books by this author. Unfortunately, this book went into the DNF pile.
I'm with you Tootsie on Lawrence BLock. I've read a few of his books and gave up. You're right about nothing grabbing you – that's how I felt. At best I'd give this author a "MEH". Have a wonderful week, Cheryl.
I do the same on some of my books, simply because there are too many to read to get bogged down in one I have to struggle through. For instance, Ted Dekker: So many people LOVE his books, and I struggled through two of them thinking that maybe I was missing something, but didn't like either one. 🙂