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IN THE MIDST OF DEATH by Lawrence Block Avon, June 2002 $7.50 ISBN: 0380763621 Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Portia Carr, expensive call girl is found murdered in the Greenwich Village hideaway of cop-on-the-take Jerry Broadfield. Broadfield is persona non grata with the NYPD because he volunteered to tell all to D.A. Aaron Prejanian's inquiry into police corruption. Carr had set Broadfield up by claiming he was blackmailing her, which caused Prejanian to drop Jerry, despite his inside information. Now she turns up dead in his apartment, and the police are only too happy to pin the homicide on the snitch cop and bang him into The Tombs. Only thing is, Scudder doesn't think he's guilty. And Scudder has his own sense of morality, so he investigates,

Scudder had been a policeman for 15 years, but he quit the force after he accidentally shot a child. Now he accepts investigating jobs that intrigue him, drinks too much, and ponders on his failed marriage. He lives in an hotel room and takes the subway or walks. He's the quintessential New Yorker. But he gets the job done.

In the Midst of Death is as valid today as it was when it was first published in 1976. Phone calls cost a dime in those days and apartments in New York were still rent controlled and available, but Scudder's values are timeless. Avon is reprinting the series in paperback. It's worth starting again at the beginning. This is the second, after The Sins of the Fathers