I don't read alot of genre fiction, but got interested in Block when I heard that he was co-writing a movie with Wong Kar-Wai, and yet that his fiction was the kind of stuff bought in airports rather than reviewed in the Times. I read some short stories and then picked this up, the first in his popular series featuring private investigator Matthew Scudder.

What it comes down to is that Block is a natural, just a really good writer. Like Stephen King, if perhaps possessed of a lighter touch. His short stories often sound like they come from a great bar storyteller.

A lot of the suspense in this novel is less over the actual "mystery" and more about the revelation of who the narrator, Matthew Scudder, is. This is set up right on the opening page, where Scudder describes his potential client as someone about whom he knew nothing; at the same time, the way Scudder compares Hanniford to himself physically underlines the fact that we don't know anything about Scudder, either! It's not so much about big surprises (the surprises related to the case itself weren't super interesting to me, honestly) as about the fresh life given to pulp characters through nice turns of phrase. Could we guess that Scudder has some dark things in his past? Yes. Are we surprised that he doesn't have close connections with a lot of people? No. But Block takes unusual care to elaborate in the character's own voice and at his own pace, and it works.