'The Night and The Music' by Lawrence Block

Crime writer Lawrence Block created Matthew Scudder in the 1970s. Scudder is an ex-cop, an alcoholic and an unlicensed private investigator. It was pretty typical stuff until 8 Million Ways to Die, Block's award-winning novel that took Scudder and readers alike to the very edge.

Scudder has since quit drinking and he's settled down, but he's still around to lend a hand to the downtrodden and defenseless. His literary life is as rich and as complex as yours and mine. He has his faults and shortcomings and he doesn't always win.

Block has been writing about his New York City detective for 30+ years now, mostly in novels. But there are moments in life - even in fiction - that don't work in 80,000 words. So Block wrote about Scudder in some short stories that appeared in anthologies and magazines like Alfred Hitchcock, Ellery Queen and Playboy. These stories, and few others, appear here in The Night and The Music.

This collection is a sharp variety of novellas, short stories and vignettes starring Matt Scudder. Written over the course of Block's career, this anthology is the recollection of a man looking back on his life. It's easy to imagine yourself sitting on the couch in Scudder's home, sipping iced tea while jazz music plays softly in the background, listening to him as he recounts his adventures. Sometimes you laugh (though not a lot), sometimes you feel a tightening in your gut as the shadowy line that separated right from wrong gets crossed (probably more often than you'd like), but you are always guaranteed a good time.

Long-time fans and those just now discovering Matthew Scudder will both enjoy this collection.