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jbrito's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mandalor3960's review
2.0
Definitely has a better storyline than most of the previous books; a video cassette with a murder involving unusual sexual content and Scudder taking matters into his own hands (especially prevalent in the previous book 'A Ticket to the Boneyard'). The plotline dead have some funny spots that felt too coincidental but Mike's role in this story is larger than in previous books and it's neither satisfying nor dissatisfying. The final shootout and scene wasn't as dramatic but the original telling of the cassette was chilling.
Rating Update 3/13/2019 - 3 to 2 stars. It took me 3 months to read the book. I definitely did not enjoy the book, save for certain parts.
Update 10 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original review's tone indicates a two star rating since I found the majority of the book to be mediocre, characteristic of two star rated books, with few three star rated sections that are not enough to raise the rating to three stars. The rating update from March 3, 2019, is helpful in supporting a two star rating since I took three months to read the novel, another characteristic of a two star rated novel.
August 20, 2019
Update
Adding to the previous update, I do not recall most of this book and have not found a synopsis online. A two star rating is a safe choice from all the information gathered in the original review and subsequent updates.
December 29, 2019
Update
The "Matt Scudder List" document ranks A Dance at the Slaughterhouse above In the Midst of Death and A Stab in the Dark. These latter books were classified as 2O ratings but A Dance at the Slaughterhouse receives a 2OO rating, means I was fine with the buildup in the mystery genre at the time of reading this book and that I also enjoyed more parts in the book. I may currently find the buildup actually OK because these novels are decent and OK (largely because of the good content).
Rating Update 3/13/2019 - 3 to 2 stars. It took me 3 months to read the book. I definitely did not enjoy the book, save for certain parts.
Update 10 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a two star rating is befitting. The original review's tone indicates a two star rating since I found the majority of the book to be mediocre, characteristic of two star rated books, with few three star rated sections that are not enough to raise the rating to three stars. The rating update from March 3, 2019, is helpful in supporting a two star rating since I took three months to read the novel, another characteristic of a two star rated novel.
August 20, 2019
Update
Adding to the previous update, I do not recall most of this book and have not found a synopsis online. A two star rating is a safe choice from all the information gathered in the original review and subsequent updates.
December 29, 2019
Update
The "Matt Scudder List" document ranks A Dance at the Slaughterhouse above In the Midst of Death and A Stab in the Dark. These latter books were classified as 2O ratings but A Dance at the Slaughterhouse receives a 2OO rating, means I was fine with the buildup in the mystery genre at the time of reading this book and that I also enjoyed more parts in the book. I may currently find the buildup actually OK because these novels are decent and OK (largely because of the good content).
henrismum's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Take away: Human cruelty in the name of sexual pleasure. Scudder was a bastard, but was it justified? You never find out about Bobby. A time before DNA was considered.
Narration: Joe Barrett - good. This is the second in a row by Barrett.
Normal Speed- Accelerated Speed
New - Second - Third - Committed
Series- Non Series - Non-Fiction - Author
Listening to this book was a chore.
I'm glad I listened to this book.
I didn't want this book to end.
I could not wait to be done with this book.
Average, but better than anything I've written.
Above average, but not really a book to rejoice in having read.
Narration: Joe Barrett - good. This is the second in a row by Barrett.
Normal Speed
New - Second - Third -
Series
Listening to this book was a chore.
I'm glad I listened to this book.
I didn't want this book to end.
I could not wait to be done with this book.
Average, but better than anything I've written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Rape, Gore, and Blood
Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol
billymac1962's review against another edition
4.0
Block's Matt Scudder series is about a NY ex-cop private investigater recovering alcoholic whose girlfriend is a high-priced prostitute. And you think you got troubles?
This novel I've singled out is probably smack-dab in the middle of the series, but it really doesn't matter. It's a gritty read about the snuff movie industry. Great writer here, folks.
I've read four or five from the Scudder series and they're all great reads.
This novel I've singled out is probably smack-dab in the middle of the series, but it really doesn't matter. It's a gritty read about the snuff movie industry. Great writer here, folks.
I've read four or five from the Scudder series and they're all great reads.
dantastic's review against another edition
5.0
Matthew Scudder is hired to figure out if a TV anchor man killed his wife. But what does that have to do with a snuff film a friend of Matt's found disguised as the Dirty Dozen at a video store?
Scudder really stepped in it this time. The Stettners, and to a lesser extent Richard Thurman, the accused anchor, are perverts and psychopaths of the worst kind, the kind that prey on children. I thought James Leo Motely in the previous Scudder book was the worst villain Block could come up with but I was wrong. The thing about Block is that he gets you to see things Scudder's way. While Scudder did something illegal and a little unsettling at the end, you agree that it had to be done.
The supporting cast continues to be one of the hallmarks of the series. Danny Boy Bell, Elaine, Mick, Durkin, even TJ, give the series a little something extra.
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse is one of my top three favorite Scudder books so far. I wouldn't start the Scudder series with it but it's quite a read.
Scudder really stepped in it this time. The Stettners, and to a lesser extent Richard Thurman, the accused anchor, are perverts and psychopaths of the worst kind, the kind that prey on children. I thought James Leo Motely in the previous Scudder book was the worst villain Block could come up with but I was wrong. The thing about Block is that he gets you to see things Scudder's way. While Scudder did something illegal and a little unsettling at the end, you agree that it had to be done.
The supporting cast continues to be one of the hallmarks of the series. Danny Boy Bell, Elaine, Mick, Durkin, even TJ, give the series a little something extra.
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse is one of my top three favorite Scudder books so far. I wouldn't start the Scudder series with it but it's quite a read.
thejoeyharris's review against another edition
5.0
A high point of the series
Matt meets TJ in this book, becoming a sort of surrogate father for him. He also deals with a case that spirals out of control quickly, leading him to a pair of sadistic people.
Matt meets TJ in this book, becoming a sort of surrogate father for him. He also deals with a case that spirals out of control quickly, leading him to a pair of sadistic people.
trudilibrarian's review
5.0
Picking this one up I was not prepared for such a trip into dark and depraved waters. This is more than Scudder has ever gone up against previously and definitely the strongest in the series since [b:Eight Million Ways To Die|402736|Eight Million Ways To Die|Lawrence Block|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348618245s/402736.jpg|2905875]. While we've moved along in years out of the 80's into the early 90's, New York City continues to be a seething trap of anger and violence and desperation with all those ways to die and Scudder has stumbled upon yet another one. This time, he didn't even go looking for it, not really. It sort of finds him in a weird, chilling series of coincidences.
Two words: snuff film. Yeah, like I said, dark and depraved waters.
Scudder is moving along nicely in his life these days. He's sober and regularly attending meetings. He's got his girlfriend Elaine (who one dewy-eyed reviewer wistfully and with no irony whatsoever refers to as Matt's snuggle bunny) no matter that she's a call girl and continues to see clients. He's also forged a pretty meaningful friendship with Mick Ballou, the Irish gangster who may or may not have carried around some guy's head in a bowling ball bag, the man who proudly wears his father's blood stained butcher's apron (and which of those stains are man or animal, nobody knows).
I keep coming back to these books mostly for Scudder. He's such a great character to spend time with. But also for the sense of time and place that Block is able to conjure. I find the Scudder books act like time capsules in a way. So much of the plotting of this story relies on VHS tapes and renting them from a video store. It made me remember what that was like and how long it's been since I've actually done it.
I remember when my family got its first VCR ever and it was this huge exciting moment, like we had finally arrived at a Jetsons' version of the future. And with Block, it's so authentic, because he's not writing these books from a 21st century perspective and recreating 1991, he actually wrote this one in 1991 without the long view and hindsight that we have as readers. I love that. That doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to Scudder aging and getting Block's take on a 21st century New York. I can't wait actually.
I'll wrap this up with a note on the ending -- holy shit snacks.
Spoiler
If Scudder had done this in his heavy drinking days, I would have blamed it on the booze, but to do it stone cold sober, I'm positively shocked. Yet pleased. Satisfied. There was a time early on when I was so angry at Scudder for letting a child rapist walk free (forcing him to donate money to Boys' Town). I was so disappointed with his lack of action then. Well, no one can accuse him of lack of action here. Decisive. Unequivocal. Was this justice or cold-blooded murder? I loved when Scudder tells Ballou about his mentor who told him you don't ever do something with your own hands you can get somebody else to do for you. Well I guess Scudder decided that wasn't for him. If this was going to happen, he was going to have blood on his hands to show for it. I can respect that.Now I think I'll go for a walk among the tombstones.
mferrante83's review against another edition
4.0
First Line: Midway into the fifth round the kid in the blue trunks rocked his opponent with a solid left to the jaw.
A Dance At the Slaughterhouse is the ninth novel to feature Lawrence Block’s private detective, Matthew Scudder. Scudder, an unlicensed detective and currently sober alcoholic is hired to find out if (or how) a TV producer manged to stage the rape and murder of his own wife. Of course, as with most of the detective novels I’ve read so far, that really only describes the plot at the outset. Rivaling only The Long Goodbye with its twisting plot A Dance at the Slaughterhouse takes many turns before it finally arrives at a satisfying, thrilling, and morally ambiguous conclusion..
Scudder is an interesting character. He frequently attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings yet his best friend Mick Ballou is a saloon owner with whom Scudder spends long nights with talking and drinking (coke or coffee, Mick sticks to whiskey). He lacks the outright wry humor of many hard-boiled detectives yet he manages to have a way with words (his “way out here in the middle of the alphabet” comment when discussing love and marriage with his girlfriend Elaine, was particularly noteworthy). He has a strong sense of justice, of right and wrong, but that sense clashes with the reality of the justice system. There is a comforting stoicism to him that speaks towards a certain strength of character while at the same time hinting at at somewhat jaded world view.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph the plot of A Dance at the Slaughterhouse is a bit twisting wherein two large, seemingly unrelated mysteries wind up being totally related. In all honesty I find that element to be somewhat tiresome, and I haven’t come across it too many times in my reading, but I’d be interesting to read a detective story wherein the two major mysteries manage to actually be two separate but totally unrelated mysteries. The amount of coincidence that connects the two plots here, the first involving the aforementioned television producer and the second involving a child porn snuff film (I feel dirty just typing that out), strains credibility. On the other hand, once those connections are revealed they are actually quite sound and play out to satisfying ending during the novel’s climatic finally. I only wish that Scudder’s intuitive leap at the connection didn’t quite feel so random. Then again intuition and instinct are like the bread and butter of the private detective.
Indeed, given that the initial plot set forth (the investigation of the television producer) is set aside within only a couple of chapters as a chance encounter refocuses Scudder on his exposure to the snuff tape and initiates a lengthy flashback wherein Scudder details his past investigation into its origins. It is a little jarring to say the least. Regardless the plot set forth by that tape is compelling and Scudders reaction, a man who has seen it all being suddenly exposed to a new horror, makes for some heart-rending reading. In particular Scudder’s conversation with the traumatized woman who works at a local halfway house/homeless shelter for runaway teens/children is masterfully done; the distant cast to the woman’s dialogue is a stirring tribute to the injustice she is forced to witness on a daily basis. When the plots do finally converge, a slow process but I’m certain I overlooked several clues during my reading that others might not, everything seems to fit quite neatly. Fits neatly yes but, as it turns out, not neatly enough for the law.
Which is where Scudder, takes a page out of Mike Hammer’s book. Having not read A Ticket to the Boneyard Scudder’s decision to take justice into his own hands came out of left field; though readers of that earlier novel might not be so surprised. It adds an element of moral ambiguity that is the result of moral certainty. It raises the novel beyond a whodunnit (or perhaps a howdunnit) to something a bit more complex; a mediation on the nature of justice. Reservations via plot structure aside, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse was an excellent read on par with the best the detective genre has to offer. If you’ve never read any of the Scudder novels so far A Dance at the Slaughterhouse isn’t a bad place to start (it does spoil A Ticket to the Boneyard, though).
A Dance At the Slaughterhouse is the ninth novel to feature Lawrence Block’s private detective, Matthew Scudder. Scudder, an unlicensed detective and currently sober alcoholic is hired to find out if (or how) a TV producer manged to stage the rape and murder of his own wife. Of course, as with most of the detective novels I’ve read so far, that really only describes the plot at the outset. Rivaling only The Long Goodbye with its twisting plot A Dance at the Slaughterhouse takes many turns before it finally arrives at a satisfying, thrilling, and morally ambiguous conclusion..
Scudder is an interesting character. He frequently attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings yet his best friend Mick Ballou is a saloon owner with whom Scudder spends long nights with talking and drinking (coke or coffee, Mick sticks to whiskey). He lacks the outright wry humor of many hard-boiled detectives yet he manages to have a way with words (his “way out here in the middle of the alphabet” comment when discussing love and marriage with his girlfriend Elaine, was particularly noteworthy). He has a strong sense of justice, of right and wrong, but that sense clashes with the reality of the justice system. There is a comforting stoicism to him that speaks towards a certain strength of character while at the same time hinting at at somewhat jaded world view.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph the plot of A Dance at the Slaughterhouse is a bit twisting wherein two large, seemingly unrelated mysteries wind up being totally related. In all honesty I find that element to be somewhat tiresome, and I haven’t come across it too many times in my reading, but I’d be interesting to read a detective story wherein the two major mysteries manage to actually be two separate but totally unrelated mysteries. The amount of coincidence that connects the two plots here, the first involving the aforementioned television producer and the second involving a child porn snuff film (I feel dirty just typing that out), strains credibility. On the other hand, once those connections are revealed they are actually quite sound and play out to satisfying ending during the novel’s climatic finally. I only wish that Scudder’s intuitive leap at the connection didn’t quite feel so random. Then again intuition and instinct are like the bread and butter of the private detective.
Indeed, given that the initial plot set forth (the investigation of the television producer) is set aside within only a couple of chapters as a chance encounter refocuses Scudder on his exposure to the snuff tape and initiates a lengthy flashback wherein Scudder details his past investigation into its origins. It is a little jarring to say the least. Regardless the plot set forth by that tape is compelling and Scudders reaction, a man who has seen it all being suddenly exposed to a new horror, makes for some heart-rending reading. In particular Scudder’s conversation with the traumatized woman who works at a local halfway house/homeless shelter for runaway teens/children is masterfully done; the distant cast to the woman’s dialogue is a stirring tribute to the injustice she is forced to witness on a daily basis. When the plots do finally converge, a slow process but I’m certain I overlooked several clues during my reading that others might not, everything seems to fit quite neatly. Fits neatly yes but, as it turns out, not neatly enough for the law.
Which is where Scudder, takes a page out of Mike Hammer’s book. Having not read A Ticket to the Boneyard Scudder’s decision to take justice into his own hands came out of left field; though readers of that earlier novel might not be so surprised. It adds an element of moral ambiguity that is the result of moral certainty. It raises the novel beyond a whodunnit (or perhaps a howdunnit) to something a bit more complex; a mediation on the nature of justice. Reservations via plot structure aside, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse was an excellent read on par with the best the detective genre has to offer. If you’ve never read any of the Scudder novels so far A Dance at the Slaughterhouse isn’t a bad place to start (it does spoil A Ticket to the Boneyard, though).
paulataua's review against another edition
4.0
The Matthew Scudder series continues and seems to get more and more polished. The oft repeated format of two apparently distinct crimes that become linked, the same collection of likeable characters, and the same Scudder (though with less on his fight against alcoholism in this one) . All we know is that Scudder will actually solve the crime and that we should expect an unconventional ending. I’ll be sad to see the end of this series.
arthur_pendrgn's review
1.0
Everything about this is fine--writing, plot, etc. I do like the character of Elaine. I'm just tired of child abuse as a plot device. I've now read all of the series. What a book to end on.