3 out of 5

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Coming off of a few books I wasn’t actively enjoying, I smiled with comfort a few paragraphs in to Lawrence Block’s A Walk Among the Tombstones: I was back in the arms of a master, creating personalities and worlds with choice descriptive words; compelling stories that satisfy any pulpy needs but also layer beyond the genre. Tombstones is also well into Block’s Matthew Scudder series; being the tenth novel, the character is in a great place that matched what I needed at the time: in AA; at a good point with his relationships; settled in his post-cop career. The excitement of reading this kind of “mature” novel from a classic author was exactly what I needed.

The book overcorrects a bit, though. While I can sincerely happily dive into hundreds of pages of Block procedural, the tone of the novel is almost a bit too casual: whether to counter the particularly nasty crimes Scudder is investigating, or to give the author room to sift through some new technology (phone phreaking), or to allow us to keep a rather expansive cast straight, the 400 page book does end up feeling like a case report at points, and not a thriller.

Scudder is called in to track down the perpetrator of a kidnapping and murder, with the surviving husband not wanting the police called in for various reasons. Matt decides to take the case, but has to start from the scantest of clues, which he – via Block’s writing – rather masterfully massages into leads.

Watching this slowly come together is fascinating; however, there are several instances where the storyline feels extended, like Block kept trying to figure out how to lead Matt away from doing anything too devious. This undermines the tension, unfortunately, and brings us to a couple potential stopping points that then get extended.

Separately, we have some character beats surrounding Scudder’s girlfriend, and his drinking, and these are quite excellent, but also very… well, mature. I don’t want drama just for the sake of it, and I love when adults act like adults, but the balancing of dramatics in Tombstones is off, as though it’s a collection of moments that all make sense surrounding this case, but when pieced together linearly, don’t necessarily build together.

Rewinding back, though, Block is still Block, and the book has a polish like few manage in the genre. And the flipside of the tone I’m criticizing is that the main characters feel so fully realized that their actions / reactions definitely make sense, so the book has immersion on its side. But maybe by leaning a bit too far into the paced nature of reality, we lose a bit of pulpy flair.