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A review by usbsticky
A Candle for the Bag Lady by Lawrence Block
4.0
Spoilers ahead:
This is the second Scudder short story I've read. A bag lady is savagely murdered in the streets. Scudder is drawn into the mystery when he finds out that the woman is an heiress and has left him a bequest of $1200 for reasons unknown since he doesn't know her any more than as a local denizen of the streets.
Because of this bequest he decides to look into it. The bag lady does have a room in a rooming house (RSO) and he questions the landlady and as many of the boarders that he can find. He next questions the attorney handling the estate and finds out that the lady had given out 32 bequests and he also undertakes to question as many of those as he can find.
But most of the people he questions don't have a beef with her or even know her well. In fact, most of the people don't even understand why she left them money. The word gets out on the street that Scudder is investigating her murder but he is at an impasse.
Finally one night out of the blue, someone comes into Armstrong's out of the blue, sits at Scudder's table and just confesses.
There isn't really a whodunit in this short story as Scudder's investigations lead to a dead end and the killer just confesses. But I still like the book as it's a brief revisit to one of my favorite crime solvers and maybe Block wanted to write about the homeless denizens that populate our streets and tell us that they are people too and have their stories.
This is the second Scudder short story I've read. A bag lady is savagely murdered in the streets. Scudder is drawn into the mystery when he finds out that the woman is an heiress and has left him a bequest of $1200 for reasons unknown since he doesn't know her any more than as a local denizen of the streets.
Because of this bequest he decides to look into it. The bag lady does have a room in a rooming house (RSO) and he questions the landlady and as many of the boarders that he can find. He next questions the attorney handling the estate and finds out that the lady had given out 32 bequests and he also undertakes to question as many of those as he can find.
But most of the people he questions don't have a beef with her or even know her well. In fact, most of the people don't even understand why she left them money. The word gets out on the street that Scudder is investigating her murder but he is at an impasse.
Finally one night out of the blue, someone comes into Armstrong's out of the blue, sits at Scudder's table and just confesses.
There isn't really a whodunit in this short story as Scudder's investigations lead to a dead end and the killer just confesses. But I still like the book as it's a brief revisit to one of my favorite crime solvers and maybe Block wanted to write about the homeless denizens that populate our streets and tell us that they are people too and have their stories.