A Drop of the Hard Stuff : a Matthew Scudder Novel
The Washington Post – Maureen Corrigan
Sometimes, you open up a book, and you just know: You're in the hands of a master. Different things can signal that a golden read is about to begin: the voice…the atmosphere…the setting…In the case of Lawrence Block's latest Matthew Scudder novel, the tip-off is a brazenly simple plot premise, executed faultlessly. The storyline of A Drop of the Hard Stuff is like that apocryphal tale of Leonardo da Vinci drawing a perfect circle, freehand. There's no need for red herrings or subplots here. Block…has so perfected a pared-down, hard-boiled style that this story—about good intentions that backfire, fatally—seems to tell itself.