Publisher's Weekly Review
Marriage to his old flame, Elaine, seems to have mellowed Block's veteran PI, Matt Scudder. He still continues to get his man with a combination of doggedness and occasional flashes of inspiration, but his life has become too cozy to make him the absorbing companion he used to be. Quiet domestic evenings spent talking things over with Elaine in Block's patented delightful dialogue alternate with thoughtful discussions, in this case, with the two perpetrators in the book, who give themselves up without a murmur. Voices are never raised; not even a roscoe barks. It's all too civilized, as if Scudder's formerly gritty world were moving closer to that of Block's much slighter series hero, the daffy burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. There are two plots here, ingeniously intertwined: one involves a serial killer taking out notable bad guys to the delight of the New York press, particularly a pushy columnist who gets to publish the man's gloating notes; the other concerns the mysterious killing, in broad daylight on a park bench, of a friend of a friend of Scudder's who's in the last stages of AIDS and has a complicated insurance arrangement. As usual, Block's ingenuity in finding new motives for crime is endless, his narration polished, his entertainment value high. What is missing here is the violence, or the constant threat of it, that made Scudder's earlier appearances memorable. The ending, involving Scudder's streetwise sidekick TJ, is downright sentimental. Brace up, Block! (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The self-anointed ``Will of the People'' is a serial killer with a difference. His targets are all people you might wish were dead yourself, from child rapist-murderer Richie Vollmer to mafioso Patsy Salerno to rabid anti-abortion activist Roswell Berry to anti-Semitic black professor Julian Rashid--who wasn't even killed by the person writing gravely threatening letters to Marty McGraw of the Daily News, but by a member of Rashid's own inner circle. Does that prove that Will is a hoax? Not at all, claims Will in his next letter; it just shows that the will of the people expresses itself through many agents. So how can Will's latest target, all-too-successful criminal defender Adrian Whitfield, protect himself? By hiring legendary Matthew Scudder (A Long Line of Dead Men, 1994, etc.) to take Will on. Though he's ready to pass along some tips about personal security to Whitfield, Scudder doesn't see what he can dig up about Will's identity that an army of cops have missed--and besides, he's already been teased into looking into the unheralded and apparently unrelated shooting of AIDS-stricken Byron Leopold in a public park. But Scudder's underestimating himself. By the time he finally closes his most satisfying case in years, he'll have identified Will and run down a hideously clever murder plot based on ``viatical transactions.'' An ingenious whodunit that's also, in Block's recent manner, a provoking meditation on mortality--with a particularly strong supporting role for the City of New York, which turns in its finest performance since Ellery Queen's Cat of Many Tails. (Author tour)
Booklist Review
Back for the thirteenth time, Manhattan private detective Matt Scudder is working on two seemingly impossible cases. One is the city's newest serial killer, the Will of the People. Will bumps off high-profile hairballs--a child murderer freed on a technicality, a rabid anti-abortion crusader whose efforts have led to the murders of abortion clinic doctors, and a fanatical black racist. Matt's other case is the apparently senseless and motiveless murder of an AIDS sufferer who is shot while sitting on a park bench. Neither is the kind of case a lone PI can solve, but Scudder doggedly pursues his investigations while offering readers more insights into his life and the evermore bizarre life of his city. Ultimately, he solves these cases, but along the way, we're treated to his patient, even-tempered views both of his life as a recovering alcoholic and of the city around him, including the homeless, the employed middle class of Manhattan, and churches that have coin-operated electric candles--25 cents for a few minutes of light to remember a loved one. From the epigraph--Willa Cather's line, "Even the wicked get worse than they deserve" --to the last sentence, Block has graced mystery fans with another wonderfully textured Scudder novel. --Thomas Gaughan
Library Journal Review
When Block speaks, people listen; especially mystery buffs. In this latest in his Matthew Scudder series (e.g., A Long Line of Dead Men, Morrow, 1994), a vigilante preys on New York's worst criminals. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
