A Dance at the Slaughterhouse

In this pitch-perfect crime story, now-sober Manhattan PI Matt Scudder--seen last in A Ticket to the Boneyard --embarks on a personal mission as he investigates the death of the wife of TV producer Richard Thurman. Amanda Thurman was sexually assaulted and murdered during a robbery in which her husband was injured. Hired by Amanda's brother, who suspects his brother-in-law of complicity in the murder, Scudder tails the producer to a boxing match where he notices another man whom he believes he saw on tape a few months earlier on a different case involving a snuff film. Although he finally connects Thurman with the masked players in the film (a chilling husband and wife who quote Nietzsche with ``New Age gloss''), Scudder can't provide enough evidence for prosecuting either the taped killing or Amanda's murder. Sticking with the case, Scudder explores New York's sex-for-sale industry, calls on such old drinking friends as cop Joe Durkin and criminal Mick Ballou, and attends AA meetings at all hours of the day, all over the city as Block masterfully builds the pressure that leads Scudder to the violent resolution. In his eight earlier appearances, Scudder has been a copy, an unrelenting drinker, a family man; his evolution in Block's series, fraught with ambiguity, is as convincing as a real life. Author tour. (Sept.)