Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block

 

This was a kinda precious little find in the library--a Block novel from the mid-1970s. I've read a few of the later Scudder novels (this series) after Scudder has done work in twelve-step programs, and it's ... a little weird to see him just drinking a lot, and having like a two-day blackout, but still being at least mostly functional. Well, functional within the limits of being Scudder, at least. The prose is solid with moments of sparkle, as one would expect from Block, and the story and characters are solid, and the 1970s New York of the novel feels suitably gritty and grimy and livable.