by Scott Frank
Matthew Scudder, a retired New York cop and former alcoholic has no intention of taking a back seat. After being dismissed from his corps following a tragic end to a shootout, Scudder now takes on cases as an unlicensed private detective, a position that often leads him to the place he knows best: The Big Apple’s seedy underworld. Although not particularly fastidious where the law is concerned, Scudder nevertheless hesitates when hired by a heroin smuggler to investigate the brutal murder of his wife. Scudder soon discovers the murder was not a one-off and also not the last. Together with the drug dealer, he sets off on a hunt that takes him to his moral limits and beyond.