I am a huge fan of Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries but had never read one of his Matthew Scudder books. I read Ian Rankin’s books and follow him on Twitter and he highly recommended this book – well I know why now. The book starts with a couple of old men in a pub in Hell’s Kitchen and they are reminiscing about the old days. They have basically lived their lives on either side of the law and they get to talking about someone the cop knew from his childhood days in the Bronx. This other man, Jack, went the way of the crook and even though he didn’t cross paths with Scudder as a criminal, he did later on whilst trying to make amends as part of his 12 step programme.

We then move to much earlier in Scudder’s career when he had already left the Force and was nearly a year into his sobriety. It is also interesting to note the detail that Block puts into the emotional and physical side of Scudder’s recovery. We are made aware of the very thoughts that go through his head when he is near a bar or even in places he has had experiences whilst drunk are fascinating. Anyway, Jack approaches him after an AA meeting and they get to talking. Jack is in the stage of his sobriety where he is trying to make up for all the wrong he has done. The problem with this is there is a lot to try to work out. He has used and dealt drugs, he has robbed and he may also have murdered. His sponsor is aware of some of his past but certainly no details. As you have probably figured out, Jack ends up dead.

Jack’s sponsor hires Matt to try to figure out if it was due to his list of people he was trying to amends to as he feels a certain responsibility in encouraging this behaviour. There are quite a few people on the list that Matt is given but he is determined himself to find out the answers to the questions that arose during the last days of Jack’s life. From here we go into some pretty murky worlds and meet some awful characters. Jack has done a pretty good job of getting in front of people, especially those he never even met.

Throughout this story, Matt is dealing with his own demons as well as a girlfriend he may or may not be finished with and regular AA meetings throughout New York. He is an interesting person who is willing to try to do the right thing because he knows he has screwed up a lot of things including his marriage. I am ready to go back and read some more of his books because not only are the stories great but the main character has more than one dimension too.

I do so love a book that weaves history in with a fictional plot. Mr. Kerr is great at doing that. Bernie Gunther is the hero in these books. He was a police officer in Germany pre-World War II and was basically roped into becoming a Nazi soldier. That whole story is also weaved throughout the series and how they got to him – well obviously violence but you know what I mean. Bernie cannot go back to Germany in the mid-1950s due to the fact that he was officially a Nazi soldier. He has been hiding in Argentina – big surprise there – and has now made it to Cuba. I haven’t been reading these in order so not sure exactly how that came about except that no one is looked at too closely and there are many nationalities still in Cuba at this time. Batista is still in power but Castro and his rebels are starting to make a dent. There are many sympathizers to the communist way in Cuba around this time probably due to the deplorable conditions a lot of the people were having to live in.

At the start of this book mid-1930s, Hitler is in power and Bernie is working as a hotel detective in Berlin. Anti-Semitism is starting to be a part of everyday life. ‘Real Germans’ are encouraged to not give any business to Jews and the Jews are highly encouraged to get out of the country. As is true to the time no one ever questions that these are Germans. Judaism is not a nationality but a religion. Anyway even those ‘good Germans’ are having to eradicate any ‘Jewishness’ from their history to avoid any visits from Gestapo. Ridiculous as this may seem, this is part of our world history and Bernie is very good at mocking the whole system while trying to live within it.

As hotel detective, Bernie is responsible for security and dealing with any number of small or large complaints from guests. He is asked to respond to a wealthy hotel guest who is visiting on business from the States. He claims to have lost a very valuable wooden Chinese box. The night before a guest was seen in the company of a ‘lady of the night’ who seems to have disappeared and the gentleman whom she was with, to have died without warning. He was dreadfully overweight and probably had a heart attack but there is still the mystery of the woman who was nowhere to be found and his wallet and valuables untouched. These two stories plunge us headfirst into a mystery that culminates in Cuba. We hear Bernie’s commentary throughout the book and he is smart and witty albeit sometimes a little too sure of himself.