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A review by ericwelch
Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block
4.0
An early Scudder (apparently the second) when he was still off the wagon. Matt agrees to hold an envelope for"Spinner," a con so-named because of his habit of constantly spinning silver dollars on the table while talking to you. Spinner turns up dead and following the instructions left by Spinner, Matt opens the envelope to discover blackmail details on three otherwise upstanding citizens. Spinner's instructions are for Matt to find out who killed him, deal with that individual, and to leave the other two off the blackmail hook. Matt's only way to discover the identity of the killer is to set himself up as Spinner's successor, i.e. painting a big fat bullseye on his back. Needless to say things don;t quite work out as planned and Matt is forced to dispense his own brand of justice -- in this case one I heartily approve of.
A lot of rumination on the consequences of small actions. We never know what the outcome will be of any myriad of small decisions, e.g., what if we had left home 5 minutes earlier; would we have avoided the accident, that kind of thing. Really excellent example of Block's talent. Perfect for a short flight.
A lot of rumination on the consequences of small actions. We never know what the outcome will be of any myriad of small decisions, e.g., what if we had left home 5 minutes earlier; would we have avoided the accident, that kind of thing. Really excellent example of Block's talent. Perfect for a short flight.