Scudder meets Ballou and learns fate of missing girl from Indiana.

Scudder continues in AA, investigation of missing girl leads to other crimes, falls in love with murderess & turns her in

Bittersweet: this was my last unread Scudder mystery. There is a real mystery, and it is probably solvable, although Block here follows the hide-key-information-from-the-reader mystery trope. There is also signficant character development, particularly regarding Scudder's alcoholism, and meeting Ballou. The plotting and the characters, the New York writing---all are decent but probably not Block's strongest. The dialog was still often excellent. It was a good idea to read this book last, out of order; this way one can appreciate the significance of the plot points and character tidbits. ( )

The seventh novel in Block’s Matthew Scudder series, “Out on the Cutting Edge,” first published in 1989, is, without question, up to the standard of excellence set in the first six novels in this series. Scudder, a former police officer, lost the itch to be a cop, lost the itch to be a married family man in suburbia, and ended up in a hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, drinking from bar to gin mill to liquor store, while solving cases as favors for friends or friends of friends. In this novel, Scudder’s personal story has moved forward to where he is deeply involved in AA. He still frequents the same gin mills, but has coffee or cola rather than booze now. He still chooses not to maintain a real job or a real relationship, preferring the temporariness of life in a hotel and taking cases as they come up, setting his fees based on a hunch about what it might be worth. He has no license as a PI and disdains the paperwork and regular reports.

This book takes Scudder on a search for a young woman who left her corn-fed Midwestern home to become an actress in the big city. She’s disappeared, leaving behind no note, no message, nothing. Her stuff is all gone and she missed the last week’s rent. Scudder doesn’t like the signs he’s getting, but with dogged determination he chases down the little clues that might yield results like when she closed her last telephone bill, who worked with her in plays, etc. Meanwhile, Scudder wonders about what happened to an acquaintance from AA who disappeared and ends up in a relationship with a woman from the acquaintance’s building, an ex-Marxist whose crazy past doesn’t bother Scudder, but who is not in the program. To top it off, Scudder sets up a meeting with Mickey Ballou, a giant of a man whose fame comes from being called the “Butcher Boy,” and has a reputation for carving men up and carrying their heads around in bowling bags for days afterwards.

In some ways, it might be considered a slower paced book, but that’s the nature of the Scudder series which features a slow, thoughtful detective who puts together the jigsaw puzzle pieces and hopes something along the way will click together and make sense. You are not going to go wrong picking up any of the Scudder books. They are all good. ( )

Another installment in the Matthew Scudder series. I really liked the cast of characters in this one. Matthew takes on a job to find a missing girl and ends up solving a friend's murder. He also befriends a psychopath. Matthew is also trying to reform his ways, but don't worry he's not too reformed. He still has a flawed character, just a character on the mend. I found myself almost giggling sometimes.
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