A Long Line of Dead Men

A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel, Book 12

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

An ancient brotherhood meets annually in the back room of a swank Manhattan restaurant, a fraternity created in secret to celebrate life by celebrating its dead. But the past three decades have not been kind to the Club of 31. Matthew Scudder - ex-cop and ex-boozer - has known death in all its guises, which is why he has been asked to investigate a baffling thirty-year run of suicides and suspiciously random accidents that has thinned the ranks of this very select group of gentlemen.

But Scudder has mortality problems of his own, for his is a city that feeds mercilessly on the unsuspecting - even the powerful and those who serve them are easy prey. There are too many secrets here, too many places fora maddeningly patient serial killer to hide…and wait…and strike.

©1994 Lawrence Block (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Fantastic! First time to read a Block book

What made the experience of listening to A Long Line of Dead Men the most enjoyable?

Fascinating believable story! Narration superb. Joe Barrett's voice is welcoming and his accents subtle & spot on. One of those you didn't want to end.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Matt Scudder of course!
Not often that I read a book that references other books /ideas and I take the time to look them up. In this case a quick reference to "tontine" the idea and the old books made me look them up and want to read them too. Also logic game of the 3 Christians and 3 cannibals mentioned I wasn't familiar with and looked it up and tried to solve too.
The ending was creative/ Overall an engaging & satisfying - I"m off to read another of Blocks' books read by Barrett

What does Joe Barrett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

May just be the best narrator I've heard. Just love the tone of his voice, his accents are slight but all work.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Good Audible Plus

DARK, sorry and sorted. This is the type of dialogue peppered through out this novel. I love Joe Barrett’s narrations, And gave this author a second try. Author is too dark and depressing for me or at least the main character. This is well written don’t get me wrong, but if the author can choose a dark over light adjective, he chooses dark. Not for me. The mystery was good, A. G. Ten Little lndians.
See Mike Lawson series on audible plus for Joe Barrett great narration of a great series, Joe DeMarco
Were my comments of help?

Perfect ending

Good story ... as always. Full of good characters, good conversation. Highly recommend it whether you've read it before or not.

easy to listen to....

I enjoy these books, even though they can be very dark. Solid narration, twisty stories, improbable coincidences, and quirky characters. I can set my brain on cruise control. And, they are included in Audible!

Very good writing. Narration not so great.

This book centers on a clever idea known as the Club of 31. The Club is a secret group of men who essentially are watching each other to see who dies first. A bit ghoulish. When the membership gets down too low, like maybe in the low teens, key group members reach out and recruit possible new members. It's an interesting conceit. The book also wanders through the usual suspects in Matt Scudder's personal life: Mick Ballou, Elaine Mardell, TJ, Joe Durkin, Danny Boy Bell, etc. Elaine obviously holds our interest as Matt's long-time lover and partner and long-ago call girl. How Matt manages his internal voyage through her ex-profession is an interesting study in the male psyche. I do have to register a complaint. Writers know that each scene exists to push the plot forward. I am failing to see how many of these scenes are simply anything other than checking in with old friends. They do not advance the plot at all. Now Mr. Block has written about fifty novels, so who am I to quibble, but as a reader I have to say that this cycle repeats itself like a laundry machine, and it gets a little pointless. If all they are doing is supposedly building the tension for the grand reveal, then I find that hard to distinguish from padding. And to make matters worse, the large lumps of indigestible prose (thank you very much Tim Hallinan) that appear in order to cover all the bases near the end of the book: totally TMI, IMHO. I personally do not need to carefully wrap up each minor subplot. Lengthy explanations of these serve to almost completely undo the suspense that the author has carefully built up over the prior 300 pages.
Also, Joe Barrett is beginning to wear on me. He is very talented, but the director is clearly pushing him very hard to speed things up, and this is distracting rather than being any kind of stylistic addition. His voice by now has a lovely lived-in quality that comes with age and experience, but pushing things forward does not improve the book. Once again, I have to say, listen to the Grand Master, Frank Muller. His voice also was lived-in and comfortable, but his pacing was masterful. You felt the need to speed up and slow down. It's instinctive, I think. Just imagine how many audiobooks we could have had if Frank could have been allowed to live a normal lifespan. George Guidall is 80; I am 70; Frank died in his late fifties. Boo, frankly, hoo.

Countdown - 31 to zero

This Scudder story starts a little slow and odd. But as it continues it picks up steam. A club of 31 members which meets only once a year to enjoy a good dinner and contemplate when each will die. And it appears that someone is helping them to the great beyond.

Another great shudder

LB has great plots and very interesting characters with excellent pace and lots of good twists. The AA meetings subplot tends to grate after a while a bit like if Scudder was a vet and kept visiting the zoo every second chapter but easy to over look for the enjoyment of traveling for awhile alongside Matt

4 plus

A mystery story, a detective story plus something
Different. Excellent. Beautifully plotted and written. You can't go wrong with this one.

Same Old Scudded

Convoluted plot upon plot. I don’t like the woman on the side. I hope his wife has her own side piece. I’m glad he’s not drinking.

Finished in a day!

I listened to this book because of the narrator, but continued because of the story…. as stated once I hit play I continued listening until the end.