A review by paulataua
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

5.0

Ex detective and heavy drinker Matt Scudder sets about solving three seemingly unrelated cases in a less than conventional way. I don’t remember what got me to start reading this. I spent the first forty of fifty pages trying to work out what was happening, the next hundred trying to work out where it was all going, and just as I was at the point of wondering whether or not to give up, it came together. A powerful and unforgettable novel that transcends the detective genre. Try it and you will probably end up joining the rest of us who went to YouTube to listen to Dave Van Ronk’s ‘Last Call’ which plays a part in the novel and contains the line that gave the book its title.