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Overview
This is a city that seduces dreamers . . . then eats their dreams.
Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best—and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love—and death—in the worst possible places.
Reissued to coincide with Block's bestselling A Ticket to the Boneyard. Ex-cop, ex-alcoholic, and ex-innocent Matthew Scudder travels into the heart of New York City's Hell's Kitchen to investigate a young girl's disappearance--and discovers that searching through gritty, crack-infested tenements can be hazardous to one's health.
Synopsis
Matthew Scudder Crime Novel #7. "A master . Lawrence Block's estimable private eye Matthew Scudder is one of the most fully developed and credible characters working in the genre today" (Chicago Tribune).
New York is a city that seduces dreamers ... then eats their dreams.
Kansas City Star
Realistic, Gripping and Poignant.
Editorials
Chicago Tribune
Superb....If You Haven't Been Introduced To Scudder Yet, Start Here.Philadelphia Inquirer
A Powerhouse.New York Daily News
Exceptional...A Whale Of A Knockout Punch To The Solar Plexus.Kansas City Star
Realistic, Gripping and Poignant.Publishers Weekly
The prolific author's humanity and the immediacy of his understated style are again evidenced in his seventh mystery related by Matt Scudder: ex-NYPD officer, recovering alcoholic, and now private detective ( When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes , etc.). This novel opens with Matt looking for Paula Hoeldtke, an aspiring actress who disappeared a short time after she arrived in Manhattan from Muncie, Ind. In an unrelated case, Matt investigates the apparent suicide of a fellow AA member, Eddie Dunphy, and becomes the lover of Willa Rossiter, who manages the apartment house where Eddie lived. The affair flourishes despite warnings from his AA sponsor about an involvement with Willa, a heavy drinker. Matt ignores the advice, as he does the anonymous phone calls ordering him to quit asking questions about the missing girl and Eddie's death. In time, the dogged investigator uncovers the appalling facts that close both cases. In this riveting mystery, Block's artistry creates a full complement of fully realized characters, each a real person regardless of his or her perhaps tenuous connection to the plot. (Oct.)Gar Anthony Haywood
Mr. Block's bull's-eye dialogue and laser-image description have managed to lend his novels an identity all their own....'Out on the Cutting Edge' remains more a testament to Mr. Block's strengths than his weaknesses.— The New York Times