Rating: 
Summary: Scudder Almost Gets His Ticket Punched
Review: "A Ticket to the Boneyard" is the Scudder novel that reitroduces Elaine, the sensible call girl who would eventually leave the life and become his wife. Elaine calls Scudder after many years because a psycopathic killer that the two of them joined forces to frame when Scudder was still a cop is back out on the streets and aiming to kill them both. This entry into the Scudder series starts out rather slowly, given that the reader is way ahead of Scudder in figuring out what's going on. By the second half, however, things pick up as Scudder comes to terms with what he must do. Along the way, his cherished sobriety faces a mean test. Overall, I would rank "Baneyard" in the middle of the Scudder novels, particularly because it starts off so conventionally. But author Lawrence Block does not disappoint in the end, giving us the type of high quality resolution we have come to expect from Scudder.
Rating:
Summary: Scudder Almost Gets His Ticket Punched
Review: "A Ticket to the Boneyard" is the Scudder novel that reitroduces Elaine, the sensible call girl who would eventually leave the life and become his wife. Elaine calls Scudder after many years because a psycopathic killer that the two of them joined forces to frame when Scudder was still a cop is back out on the streets and aiming to kill them both. This entry into the Scudder series starts out rather slowly, given that the reader is way ahead of Scudder in figuring out what's going on. By the second half, however, things pick up as Scudder comes to terms with what he must do. Along the way, his cherished sobriety faces a mean test. Overall, I would rank "Baneyard" in the middle of the Scudder novels, particularly because it starts off so conventionally. But author Lawrence Block does not disappoint in the end, giving us the type of high quality resolution we have come to expect from Scudder.
Rating: 
Summary: Blew Me Away
Review: "Ticket to the Boneyard" has to be one of the best books i have ever read. This was my first book out of the Mathew Scudder series but it definitely made me want to read them all. The plot is very good and the characters are very easy to relate to. Although the book does start off sort of slow, it makes up for lost time later in the book. I Definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good read.
Rating:
Summary: AT THE TOP OF A GREAT PILE OF BOOKS
Review: "TICKET" CROSSES THE LINE OF THE MYSTERY NOVEL TO MAINSTREAM AS DOES ANOTHER BLOCK MASTERPIECE, "A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES". THE REST OF BLOCK'S BOOKS ARE FAIRLY PREDICTABLE FOR CONTENT AND STYLE. MYSTERY AUTHORS GENERALLY WRITE ONE OR TWO GOOD BOOKS AND THEN RE-WRITE THEM TEN MORE TIMES UNTIL SALES FALL OFF. ED MCBAIN'S "KISS" IS ANOTHER EXCEPTION. THESE THREE BOOKS WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.
Rating:
Summary: Good Matt Scudder Novel
Review: . Matthew Scudder is Lawrence Block's remarkable private investigator. He's a former NYPD detective who left the force after an accident left a child dead in a crossfire. Because he is unlicensed you can't "hire" him. Instead he does you a favor by taking your case and solving the crime. In exchange for the favor the client returns the favor by giving him some cash. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings throughout the book. In earlier Scudder novels Matt is almost always without a drink in his hands. I have read most of the Scudder series to date and fond "A Ticket to the Boneyard," the best. I could not put it down. Reading it took priority of everything else I had to do or should have done. Scudder is reacquainted with James Leo Motley sent to prison a dozen years earlier. Motley vowed to get even and kill Scudder and all his women. Although Scudder is divorced the only woman in his life is Elaine, a call girl. This doesn't stop Scudder as friends, acquaintances; the psychotic killer eliminates people he doesn't know. If you read only one Lawrence Block/Scudder novel, "A Ticket to the Boneyard," should be that novel. An afterthought: Matthew Scudder is a realistic, likeable character. In the early books we find that after he left the NYPD he took up drinking and left his wife and two sons. From time to time she asks Scudder to send more money because "we need it." Scudder generally obliges. Although not living with his family Scudder is not distant from them. He speaks to his boys on the phone and brings them into the city for a ball game. For some reason that Scudder doesn't know finds himself visiting churches and leaving a donation, tithing, ten percent of money recently received from a client. Scudder says Catholic churches receive donations for than others because they are generally open at late hours. Although he's not a religious man he finds peace and solitude in the almost always empty sanctuary he visits.
Rating:
Summary: Good Matt Scudder Novel
Review: .Matthew Scudder is Lawrence Block's remarkable private investigator. He's a former NYPD detective who left the force after an accident left a child dead in a crossfire. Because he is unlicensed you can't "hire" him. Instead he does you a favor by taking your case and solving the crime. In exchange for the favor the client returns the favor by giving him some cash. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings throughout the book. In earlier Scudder novels Matt is almost always without a drink in his hands. I have read most of the Scudder series to date and fond "A Ticket to the Boneyard," the best. I could not put it down. Reading it took priority of everything else I had to do or should have done. Scudder is reacquainted with James Leo Motley sent to prison a dozen years earlier. Motley vowed to get even and kill Scudder and all his women. Although Scudder is divorced the only woman in his life is Elaine, a call girl. This doesn't stop Scudder as friends, acquaintances; the psychotic killer eliminates people he doesn't know. If you read only one Lawrence Block/Scudder novel, "A Ticket to the Boneyard," should be that novel. An afterthought: Matthew Scudder is a realistic, likeable character. In the early books we find that after he left the NYPD he took up drinking and left his wife and two sons. From time to time she asks Scudder to send more money because "we need it." Scudder generally obliges. Although not living with his family Scudder is not distant from them. He speaks to his boys on the phone and brings them into the city for a ball game. For some reason that Scudder doesn't know finds himself visiting churches and leaving a donation, tithing, ten percent of money recently received from a client. Scudder says Catholic churches receive donations for than others because they are generally open at late hours. Although he's not a religious man he finds peace and solitude in the almost always empty sanctuary he visits.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Written; Suspenseful Book
Review: As always, the novel is well-written with lots of great language. The book moves along quickly. You won't be bored ot tempted to put it down.
Block does a great job confronting Scudder's problems with alcohol, with full descriptions of AA meetings and his AA friends. You really believe that Scudder is an alcoholic. Block also frequently mentions the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, a book that Scudder is reading. Scudder ponders the Meditations as different things happen in the book. The only slight problem with this book is that the ending is somewhat predictable.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the genre!
Review: Block is the world's greatest living master of the hard-edged, gritty detective novel. Be prepared to stay up late with this one...
Rating:
Summary: Lawrence Block is a true literary master
Review: I have just finished reading "A Ticket to the Boneyard"
and it is arguably the best in the Scudder series.
I have read all the Scudder mysteries except for the newest
three ("A long line of dead men", "The Devil knows
you're dead" and "A walk among the tombstones).
"A Ticket to the Boneyard" would definitely be my first choice if I had to recommend someone to read a novel
by Lawrence Block. "Boneyard" is a cross between
existentialism and "Cape Fear", and Block takes Scudder's
restlessness and edginess to the extreme, in a perfectly
defined and balanced narrative that wastes no time and takes you on a ride through the worst of NYC from which you cannot escape. The villain in this
novel is one of the meanest, sharpest and most believable SOB's to be featured in literature ever.
I inhaled "A Ticket to the Boneyard" in three days, and it would have been less had I not cared about
being fired from my job. Scudder is a blast, and
Lawrence Block is a genius.
Rating:
Summary: Boneyard is Classic Material
Review: I liked Lawrence Block's "A Ticket to the Boneyard" right off. This was my first Matthew Scudder novel to read, and I found the character very easy to associate with. Not that you'd have to be an alcoholic bum, because I am not, but his humble, desperate situations make him a great character immediately. I liked him, and found him to be very interesting. Of course the plot itself was a nice piece of work, with its twists and sudden turns, and the uncanny amount of realism in the story really brings it all together as a truly great read. It's written with a slightly amateurish style of grammatical structure, which merely adds to the authenticity of the book, but I thought that some of the words that came from Matt and Elaine's mouths were a little advanced for an ex-cop and a prostitute. Either way, the book was great and I will certainly pick up more Scudder novels to read in the future!
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