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    Hope to Die
    Hope to Die
    Hope to Die
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Hope to Die

    Written by Lawrence Block

    Narrated by Lawrence Block

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    About this audiobook

    Twenty-five years ago Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block introduced his acclaimed unlicensed private investigator to the New York crime scene. Today Matt Scudder remains one of the most complex, richly human protagonists in noir fiction as he pursues a faceless adversary with a unique talent and taste for murder.

    When Byrne and Susan Hollander are killed in a brutal home invasion, the whole city catches its collective breath. A few days later the killers turn up dead behind a locked door in Brooklyn. One has killed his partner, then himself. The city sighs with relief. The cops close the case.

    Matt and Elaine Scudder were in the same room with the Hollanders hours before their deaths. In spite of himself, Scudder is drawn to the Hollander case. The closer he looks, the more he senses the presence of a third man, a puppet master who manipulated his two accomplices, then cut their strings when he was done with them.

    The villain who looms in the shadows is one of Block’s most inspired creations, cold and diabolical, murdering for pleasure and profit. Nobody but Scudder even suspects he exists—and he’s not done killing.

    He’s just getting started. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 3, 2004
    ISBN9780060783198
    Author

    Lawrence Block

    Lawrence Block is one of the most widely recognized names in the mystery genre. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and is a four-time winner of the prestigious Edgar and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. He received the Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association—only the third American to be given this award. He is a prolific author, having written more than fifty books and numerous short stories, and is a devoted New Yorker and an enthusiastic global traveler.

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    Reviews for Hope to Die

    4/5

    121 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      He began as an ex-police detective with a gold shield who left the force after a child was caught in the crossfire of a righteous shooting. He left his family and suburban life, too, drinking himself into a stupor before spending decades attending meetings in church basements and finding a way to live with himself. On the surface by the time the fifteenth novel rolls around, Scudder has put a life together. He has remarried, lives in an upscale apartment, attends the theater and classical concerts, and has TJ working for him almost as a partner. But beneath the surface, he's still haunted by some ghosts from his past such as the wife and kids he walked out on twenty years earlier. There is a brutal double murder at the heart of this novel and, not surprisingly, one that appears to be a closed case very quickly with the perpetrators themselves dying in a murder-suicide. But, something is not right the way it all closed up like a present with a pretty bow on it and Scudder is asked to poke around the tiniest scraps and find out if there was something more to the story, something more sinister than the brutal, depraved attack on the couple who had sat in the same theater with Scudder and Elaine that night. The book has the same gritty voice that Scudder novels are known for and the plot will leave the reader guessing and double guessing. Although the story has its fair share of blood and death, it doesn't feel as visceral or as dangerous as other books in the series and it does seem to take a while for the plot to develop. Block also delves into a technique new to the series by interspersing chapters with the killer's voice along with Scudder's own. All in all, a good, solid read, although, read by itself as a standalone book, it might not prove to be earth-shattering.
    • 4/5
      Another good installment in the Matthew Scudder series. Scudder is definitely mellowing with age and slowing down. This makes sense for the character the Lawrence Block developed. I liked how Block gave two viewpoints in the story--Scudder's and the killer's. This did not give away the whodunit" but actually led you back and forth in different directions trying to figure out the killer. Scudder himself wasn't as gritty as usual, but the story itself was the usual Lawrence Block grit.
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    • 3/5
      Another classic Scudder novel. As I’ve noted in other Block reviews, I’ve listened to Block read his own work and there’s a definite cadence to his writing, as unique as Robert Parker’s Spenser novels (but much less intrusive.) So now when I read any of Block’s work, it’s almost as if I’m hearing his voice in my head. Pleasant but sometimes disconcerting.Scudder investigates the killing, burglary and rape of the Hollanders. He’s approached initially by Byrne Hollander’s niece who has suspicions that their daughter, Kristin, was somehow involved. Nothing seems to point in that direction but the discovery of the bodies of the two burglars, dead from an apparent murder/suicide seems a bit too coincidental for Scudder. Good investigation despite the rather thin motivation for the complicated killings.Something I found a bit discomfiting was the italicized thoughts of the killer, outlining and discussing his actions. I may be wrong, but I don’t remember that kind of interposition in the other Scudder books I’ve read.