I really like the Matthew Scudder series, the books I have read are all solid three - three and a half stars but this one gets more because of Block's wonderful writing of Scudder's struggle with his alcoholism, and just for going for that much character development instead of taking the easy way out and keeping the character as he was. I also particularly liked this one because it's about a prostitute who was killed, and the people in her world are all multi-dimensional, the prostitutes, the pimp, even the cops with whom Scudder deals. Very well written, and my favorite in the series so far.