Rating: 
Summary: Scudder's Back!
Review: Lawrence Block has been around for a while, writing a number of successful series. Although many of his books are good to great, I have found that his most recent books in his other series (Bernie Rhodenbarr, Keller, Evan Tanner) have been a little weaker than in the past, this book - featuring his best character, Matthew Scudder - shows that Block still has it.Scudder is a constantly evolving character. In the earliest novels, he was a standard hard-boiled private eye, but soon he came to terms with his inner demons (in particular, his alcoholism) and learned how to reconstruct his life. Now, he is sixty-two, not as inclined to get in dangerous situations, but still out to expose murderers. This case deals with a couple who is killed in a home invasion robbery. Soon, the killers are themselves dead in a murder-suicide, but Scudder, when drawn into the case, begins to think there is a third man. Along with his investigation, he is involved with a subplot involving the death of his ex-wife and his relationship with his estranged sons. Block is always at his best when writing about Scudder, and this case is no exception. Admittedly, this book works best if you have read the others in the series, but even as a standalone, this is a good novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A Faint Hope
Review: Lawrence Block has long been my very favorite mystery writer, above James Lee Burke, James Crumley, Dennis Lehane and others on my list of faves. Block isn't the prose stylist that the aforementioned writers are, but he's far and away the most natural storyteller, with an uncanny gift for creating fascinating characters and sounds-like-real-people dialogue. Of all his creations (Burglar/Detective Bernie Rhodenbarr, ersatz spy Tanner, low-key hit man Keller), Block has always done his best work with his series of mysteries featuring the recovering alcoholic ex-cop Matthew Scudder. All of which is to say that when a new Scudder mystery came out, I pounced on it like a lion taking down a gazelle. Sadly, by the time I finished "Hope to Die," I came away from the experience feeling a little disappointed. Scudder's search for a budding serial killer who murders a wealthy couple comes off feeling a little thin in the plot department. Scudder's first-person narrative is interspersed with chapters told from the killer's point of view and for the most part these chapters don't add much to the story. Take them out entirely and you can still easily follow what's happening, making these chapters appear superfluous. Of course, taking them out would have also made the book pretty darn short, too. On the plus side, it's always nice to drop in on Scudder's life and see what's going on with him. There's a great subplot involving the death of Scudder's ex-wife, finally allowing the reader a chance to meet his oft-mentioned but never seen estranged sons. The reader also gets a chance to catch up with Scudder's terrific cast of secondary characters--his wife Elaine, his streetwise helper TJ, Irish gangster Mick Ballou--characters who are always a lot of fun to read about. But overall, "Hope to Die" just doesn't stack up to the best in the Scudder series (Everybody Dies, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, The Devil Knows You're Dead, Eight Million Ways to Die). Mind you, I didn't dislike the book. It just left me wanting more. I look forward to the next book in the series, and considering how the reader is left hanging at the end, the sequel seems inevitable.
Rating: 
Summary: Block re-enters Serial Killer Country
Review: Lawrence Block has written about serial killers before, but I don't think I remember a Scudder book with a serial killer. This one is poised to be a breakout book for Block, and he certainly deserves to be widely read. Not as good as the best in the series, "When the Sacred Ginmill Closes", but an engaging read and a clever mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Matt Scudder investigates the murder of a wealthy couple.
Review: Lawrence Block is known as a writer's writer, and for good reason. He effortlessly creates memorable characters, and his dialogue is witty, fast-paced and entertaining. Block's latest novel in the Matthew Scudder series is "Hope to Die," and it is as good as any that he has written. At 62, Matt Scudder (a former cop and private investigator) is now a man of leisure. He has battled alcoholism for years, and even though he is now sober, he continues to attend AA meetings regularly. He is living in Manhattan with his wife, Elaine, and they have more than enough money to make ends meet. Elaine and Matt attend quite a few concerts these days, and Susan and Byrne Hollander happen to be at the same concert as Matt and Elaine one night. Susan and Byrne are a writer and a lawyer who live in a fabulous home in Manhattan. After they return from the concert, they are murdered in an apparent "home invasion." The only heir to their fortune is their daughter, Kristin, a woman in her twenties, who finds their bodies. Shortly after the murder, the two perps who apparently committed the crime are found dead in a Brooklyn apartment, in what seems to be a murder/suicide. The police officially close the case. Matt and his droll, street-smart and computer-savvy sidekick, TJ, take on Kristin as an unofficial client, since Matt wants to dig into the case further. He believes that there is more to these murders then meets the eye. Unfortunately, as more corpses pile up, it becomes apparent that Matt is right--a psychotic killer with his own agenda is at work. Matt uses his many contacts and his sharp mind to track down the killer, who is always one step ahead of him. This time, it seems, Scudder has met his match, since the killer is fearless, clever, and elusive. "Hope to Die" is by turns suspenseful, dryly humorous and chilling as Block skillfully unveils the truth about what really happened to the Hollanders. If you pick up this book, don't expect to put it down easily. It's a brisk page-turner and another triumph for the talented Lawrence Block.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Lawrence Block is my favorite detective author, and, as others have said, I couldn't wait to read this newest entry in the Scudder series. I was really disappointed. The plot seemed thin, but, more disturbingly, I felt like Block's usually strong supporting characters -- especially Elaine and T.J. -- were diluted and lifeless.
In the past, I've had a hard time putting down any of the Scudder books. I actually had a difficult time finishing this one.
Rating:
Summary: how I wish it is 5 stars
Review: Let me start by saying that I have read all Scudder novels and half of the thief series. I like his style and I search through amazon for whichever novels still available on line and try to collect them. OK I had to admit that Scudder novel changed style from time to time but this time it is simply too much. As other had mentioned the most striking change is adding the perspective of the antagonist, the so call cat-and-mouse style. It is good in some sense. But you know what? I have loss the intimacy with Matthew Scudder this time. In the other novels I could almost smell the alcohol, seeing through the smoker in the pub, and almost felt the urge to drink. He almost felt like a old pal to me. And this is very very successful writing since I had never been to NY city (I am a Chinese living in Hong Kong). I introduced his books to my wife and she also enjoyed them. Actually I had re-read a number of books in this series. However this time I simply can't feel the magic. As a thriller I would say it is a fairly average one. I still enjoy his style and the reading experience. Like his old books he would not avoid violence but never overdid.
Rating:
Summary: Hope You Read It!
Review: Matt Scudder's entirely credible humanity continues to engage us as he confronts inhumanity once more. The crime at the centre of this story is horrible; the more we know and understand Scudder, though, the better we appreciate the contrasts between his evolving personal story and the horrors he confronts in his "job" - plus, we begin to appreciate how he solves such terrible mysteries: not by intervening in macho confrontation but by applying his maturity, subtlety and insight. The whole series has developed the Crime genre in this beautiful and rewarding way. Yes, you get the gore and the action expected of the subject matter: you also get a human context, though - so that oft-claimed justification for violent material is actually appropriate in Block's writing. And it makes the "thrills" what they should be: disturbing, uncomfortable and thought-provoking. This time, Matt interacts as ever with extremely well-realised characters - the "regular" cast of associates, this complex and delicate case's witnesses and suspects, and so on - applying his questioning and listening skills, his acuity about human nature, gradually to root out the truths behind what happened and why. He travels the locations (usually the city, usually on foot or by public transport) and pays deep attention. Block's fluent, incisive, witty turn of phrase similarly commands our attention, so that we get the whole story and usually learn something (ultimately about ourselves) in the process. It's quite riveting to experience. For one taste, have a read of the little sequence early on when Matt and TJ meet the murdered parents' niece in a Coffee Shop and Matt coaxes out of her the reasons for her suspicions about the involvement of the daughter (her cousin) who discovered the brutalised bodies. Brilliant! We certainly get all the thrills we expect of the classic Thriller, but we get so much more from our time with Matt Scudder; in fact we get moral challenge and insight on a level at which any literature aspiring to the label "Great" should aim. Not just Who Done It, then; but Why They Did It and Why We Should Care, too. That's why the "digressions" and reflections on his personal life, his age, his changing physical capacity, his relationships and the rest are so essential. Even if you take them as a kind of background "serial," or even (perish the thought) as the ongoing "soap" playing under the separate adventures, they are entertaining, engaging and full of richly-drawn and varied characters (his partner Elaine, ex-Hooker now a Woman of Culture and Property; TJ, the savvy street-kid still "street" but entrusted with a kind of "management" role for Matt's operations; the awesome butcher/barkeeper Mick Ballou). But this opulent cast further supplies the Scudder Mysteries with an unrivalled depth and originality of a "life" for Matt that makes his dealings with the darkest side of human nature that much more authentic and meaningful than lesser works in the same genre. You can't fail, at the very least, to be excited and entertained by such another well-constructed Crime Thriller so beautifully written. I hope, though, that you'll join Scudder in this thought-provoking little community Block has created over the entire series. You will find your intelligence very well complimented.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and impossible to put down.
Review: Matthew Scudder is back in Lawrence Block's latest novel, Hope to Die. As is to be expected, the unlicensed private investigator finds himself drawn into the middle of a horrible and violent murder case that was considered solved and closed by the New York police.
Upon returning home from a night at the theater, a prominent and wealthy couple is surprised to find burglars ransacking their half-million dollar brownstone. The thieves viciously torture and murder the couple and flee with pillowcases full of stolen treasures. The case is immediately solved when the bodies of the burglars are discovered, in a murder-suicide fashion. Open and closed. Nice and neat.
Except what if there was a third thief, a mastermind behind the entire scheme? What if pillowcases full of stolen treasures was not the motive for the crime? What if the wealthy dead couple had a daughter who stood to inherit millions? Or a close-to-the-family niece who would be in better financial standing if an accident happened to her cousin?
What it? What if? Leave it to Lawrence Block to compile and dump on the reader an array of 'what if's' to keep you guessing and keep you turning pages. Leave it to Block to come up with a well thought out and carefully plotted thriller that is nothing short of classic Scudder. The host of characters Block creates are lively and real. Dialogue is crisp and believable. As always the mystery is full of puzzle pieces to sift through. It is no wonder Lawrence Block is an award-winning novelist. Hope to Die is fast and complete and I enjoyed every chapter.
--Phillip Tomasso III, author of Third Ring and Tenth House
Rating:
Summary: The Best Scudder in Quite Awhile
Review: Most longtime fans of the Matt Scudder series should be pleased with "Hope to Die". The writing is stronger than the more recent Scudder novels, which seemed like hastily constructed assembly line jobs to fulfill a contract. The writing is not as good as the early Scudder novels, but this is a satisfying read, nonetheless. Stylistically, it had a few too many asides and tangents, although some of these help in introducing characters or bringing us up-to-date on them. The ending is a bit of a let down and a bit formulatic (I won't spoil it further), but I don't read these books for plot, as much as for the characters. Scudder's kids get established as adults with problems of their own & I'm guessing we'll be seeing them again in the future, which is all for the good. Now, if only he'd do a new Bernie "Burglar" Rhodenberr--just leave out the guy who reminds of Inspector Lugar from the old Barney Miller tv series.
Rating:
Summary: Strong but not amazing
Review: Much better than the last one (EVERYBODY DIES), and more enjoyable to read than many of the recent Scudders, but HOPE TO DIE is hampered by a somewhat comic-bookish villain (his motivation will leave you rolling your eyes), a low-key climax (the damsel in distress is relieved of her distress well in advance of the climax, via the deus-ex-machina of putting her under Mick Ballou's care), and a letdown of a finale where everything takes place off stage. On the plus side, the sequence early on when Scudder begins unraveling the mystery is very clever, there are some passages of really good writing, the sequences with Scudder's sons and ex-wife are terrific, and (as always) the book just races along and keeps you reading. Definitely a better-than-average mystery novel, but only a solid B+ -- not the A+ work we saw in great Scudder novels like EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE, WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES, and A STAB IN THE DARK. It's more like the "popcorn thriller" Scudder we got in A TICKET TO THE BONEYARD, but that book edges the new one out by a hair because it was more frightening and visceral (although the villain was just as two-dimensional).
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