last update March 18, 2008

Wanda C. Keesey, reviewer

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Eight Million Ways to Die
By Lawrence Block
PUB: William Morrow
ISBN: 978-006-145796-8

Private eye Mathew Schudder is hired by a hooker to help her "get out" of the business.  Her pimp seems to be agreeable so the job is done and Mathew is paid.  All's well in the world until he sees an item in the paper about a call girl found slaughtered.  When he finds out that the girl was his client, Schudder suspects the pimp, until he hires him to find out who killed his "girl".  The pimp's afraid for the other girls in his stable, or so he says  Scudder is puzzled.  Chance (the pimp) is his and the police's first choice for killer.

Fighting the battle of the bottle and his doubts Mathew takes the case--and it grows and grows in strange and not so obvious ways.

Mathew Scudder's personal story is one repeated over and over in life, but never better told than in the tough gritty bars and streets of Lawrence Block's New York City.  Yes, there are eight million ways to die and we hear about most of them in this truly special novel.

Review by Wanda C. Keesey (author Lost In The Mist release May 2008)