Matt Scudder

Matt Scudder is guilt-ridden alcoholic unlicensed private detective in a series of novels by Lawrence Block. Introduced in 1976's The Sins of the Fathers, the early novels are interchangeable; the second and third entries—In the Midst of Death (1976) and Time to Murder and Create (1977)—were written in the opposite order. 1982's Eight Million Ways to Die (filmed in 1988 by Hal Ashby, with unpopular results) breaks from that trend, concluding with Scudder introducing himself at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The series was set to end on that note, but an idle promise Block had made to supply an editor friend with an original Scudder short resulted in "By the Dawn's Early Light," a story set during the character's drinking days, but told from the perspective of a recovering alcoholic. Block expanded on that with 1986's When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (named for a line in a song by folk singer Dave Van Ronk, a close friend), which proved not only one of the most literary entries, but also a favorite of the author and his fans. From then on, Scudder's circumstances rarely remain the same from one book to the next; 1990's A Ticket to the Boneyard, for example, reunites him with Elaine Mardell, a hooker from his days on the force, whom he marries several books later. Other high points are 1991's taut, gruesome A Dance at the Slaughterhouse (winner of the Edgar award for best Mystery Novel), and 1993's A Long Line of Dead Men, an ingeniously-plotted puzzler featuring a rapidly dwindling fraternity - similar to a tontine - known as the "Club of 31." The sixteenth entry in the series, All the Flowers Are Dying, was published in early 2005.

Though it's been suggested that Scudder's struggle with alcoholism is in part autobiographical, Block has repeatedly refused to discuss the subject, citing AA's own tradition of anonymity.