The Devil Knows You're Dead (39 page)
Read The Devil Knows You're Dead Online
Authors: Lawrence Block
Tags: #Private Investigators, #Mystery & Detective, #New York (N.Y.), #Hard-Boiled, #General, #Fiction, #New York, #Large type books, #New York (State), #Short Stories, #Scudder; Matt (Fictitious character)
Scudder quickly discovers that the spruced-up sidewalks are as mean as ever—dark and gritty and stained with blood. He’s living in a world where the past is a minefield, the present is a war zone, and the future’s an open question. It’s a world where nothing is certain and nobody’s safe, a random universe where no one’s survival can be taken for granted—not even his own. A world where everybody dies.
The city sighs with relief. The cops close the case.
Private investigator Matt Scudder and his wife were in the same room with the couple just hours before their death, and in spite of himself, Scudder is drawn to the 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 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 . . .
A deranged derelict, a crazed Vietnam vet, has been arrested for gunning down successful young lawyer Glenn Holtzmann at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue — and the suspect’s brother wants p.i. Matthew Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But Scudder’s curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart . . . and to passions and secrets that could destroy everything he loves
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