home > mystery novel reviews > a long line of dead men

A Long Line of Dead Men

by Lawrence Block

Here's a ten-year-old murder mystery you may have missed. One of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, and I hope not his best in that area. I know Mr. Block is more capable of holding your attention (witness his Bernie Rhodenbarr novels) and has humor to spare, although it's not very apparent in this volume. There simply isn't the tension or the suspense I've come to expect from a writer of this caliber, but A Long Line of Dead Men is nonetheless a good read.

There is a kind of club which was formed back in May of 1961. It was comprised of thirty-one men, thirty between the ages of twenty-two to thirty-two, and one who was eighty-five years old. The latter man has gathered them together, being the last survivor of thirty-one men in his own club, one of whom was the survivor of thirty-one before that – and evidently the original members could be traced as far back as Babylon. Perhaps even further. They are to meet once a year on the first Thursday in May, and nothing is to stop their attendance unless it's proven unavoidable, like being in the service and out of the country at that time. The focus is solely to be on their own mortality. At the meeting, always held in the private room of a restaurant and preferably the same one, the oldest member reads out the list of names of members who have died during the previous year. When there is only one man left, he is also to gather together thirty new honorable young men and start the process all over again.

It doesn't sound like much. Then one of the members approaches Matthew Scudder. Now in his fifties, this member is worried because the number of deaths in the club suddenly seems greater and out of proportion to the norm. He doesn't want the media or police brought in; it would spotlight the club, and all the members prefer to remain anonymous – besides there's no actual proof that anyone is murdering them.

Matthew goes over the list of those who have already died. The list includes those who could not have possibly been got at by another person, but it also includes names of those who were actually murdered, suicides that could have been murder, and deaths both non-violent and violent, such as the soldier killed in Vietnam. Still, there's no indication that anyone is killing just the members on purpose – and even if they are, it must be someone with a great deal of patience, since there are long periods between each death.

Scudder begins to interview those who were either present or nearby when the deaths happened. The supposed suicide of a former member who was said to have jumped in front of a subway train could have been pushed. Also one who could have been pushed was the member who supposedly leaped out of his fifteenth floor office window. And there was the member who had hanged himself and left no note. Plus the member who was stabbed when returning to his home, and discovered soon after by a security policeman.

Sure enough, Matt realizes that members are being picked off, slowly but surely. The pace picks up, and the murders widen to include the wives of men already gone. Meanwhile Matt has befriended the security policeman and even takes him to one of his AA meetings. Here I must digress, because of the way these AA meetings are described hints that Lawrence Block himself may have had some problem with alcohol addiction. Of course, it could also be simply good research, but I myself was privileged to attend one such meeting as a guest, and having a friend who was into AA, Mr. Block's description of the various meetings and the AA organization itself sound depressingly familiar! Anyhow, Matt's security friend disappears from the scene, and Matt suspects he's also dead.

Matthew eventually realizes who the killer must be, although he still doesn't know why. And there still isn't any real proof. Then a plan is put into motion, involving cooperation and contributions from
members of the club. The killer is caught. He even confesses, revealing the reason for his crimes, but there is still no proof. So instead of being placed in police custody, the murderer is taken to a remote island in Canada, to a cabin owned by one of the members, and shackled to a cement floor. There he's left to either live out a solitary life or take advantage of a quick death by suicide – a noose is available – as is a cyanide capsule.

The novel ends with Matt marrying his long-term girlfriend. He enjoys a honeymoon in Europe, returning to be recruited as a member of the club himself. The long line of dead men will continue…

I seem to recall reading other Matthew Scudder novels where both characters and plot were more animated. A Long Line of Dead Men is obviously not one of Lawrence Block's better efforts. A Walk Among the Tombstones comes to mind, so perhaps anyone preferring the Matt Scudder series might read this earlier work first!

Alan Paul Curtis

back