Matthew Scudder Crime Novel #7. "A master.... Lawrence Block's estimable private eye Matthew Scudder is one of the most fully developed and credible characters working in the genre today" (Chicago Tribune). New York is a city that seduces dreamers... then eats their dreams. Matt Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress. But her frantic father heard that Scudder is the best -- and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. In this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love -- and death -- in the worst possible places.
About Scudder: Matt Scudder -- ex-cop, unlicensed private eye, sober alcoholic -- is an unusual hero. Consorting with cops and criminals alike, Scudder's a man who believes in justice, but who knows that no one is innocent. He is the complex and intriguing hero of a classic contemporary noir series by Grand Master of Mystery Lawrence Block.