brutally slaughtered by an icepick-wielding maniac. The trail grew cold and the book was unofficially closed on a serial killer who stopped killing. But now 'The Icepick Prowler' has confessed—but only to seven of the killings. Not only does he deny the eighth, he has an airtight alibi.
Barbara Ettinger's family had almost come to accept that the young woman was the victim of a random killing. Now they must grapple with the shocking revelation that not only was her death disguised to look like the serial killer's work, but her murderer may have been someone she knew and trusted. Matthew Scudder has been hired to finally bring her slayer to justice, setting the relentless detective on the trail of a death almost a decade cold, searching for a vicious murderer who's either long gone, long dead… or patiently waiting to kill again.
Eight Million Ways to Die
Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in the dirty city of New York. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also— and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death.
The alcoholic ex-cop turned P.I.. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling waterfront pier. Now finding Kim's killer will be Scudder's penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker's past that are far dirtier than her trade.
And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town—
some quick and brutal… and some agonizingly slow.
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
The 1970s were dark days for Matthew Scudder. An ex-New York cop, he had drowned his career in booze. Now he was drinking away his life in a succession of seedy establishments that opened early and closed late, reduced to doing paid 'favors' for the cronies who gathered to drink with him.
However, in a lonely place like so many others, opportunity comes knocking: a chance to both help the ginmill's owner recover his stolen, doctored financial records and exonerate a drinking buddy accused of murdering his wife. But when cases flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways— like the nightmare images of a drunkard's delirium—
it's time for Scudder to change his priorities to staying sober… and staying alive.
Out On the Cutting Edge
Paula Hoeldtke was a nice girl from Indiana who came to New York to be an actress and disappeared.
Her father wanted Scudder to find her. Eddie Dunphy was a small-time hood trying to give up drinking who wanted Scudder to sponsor him in AA. Ex-cop, ex-drunk, ex-innocent Matthew Scudder is trying to stay sober in a city gone mad, but he'll try to give Paula's father and Eddie what they need.
But Eddie turns up dead, apparently in an ugly accident. And Paula may be dead, too— her cold trail leads Scudder to the blistering heat of a dark part of the city called Hell's Kitchen. All Scudder wants to do is find a straight path out of trouble, but on the road he's following all he can find easily is death.
A Ticket to the Boneyard
Matthew Scudder knew James Leo Motley was the most dangerous kind of man: one who hurts people for pleasure. So twelve years ago Scudder, then a cop, lied to a jury to put Motley behind bars.
But now the brilliant psychopath is free— and Scudder must pay.
Friends and former lovers, even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder's name are turning up dead because a vengeful maniac won't rest until he's driven his nemesis back to the bottle… and then to the grave.
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
In Matt Scudder's mind money, power, and position elevate nobody above morality and the law. Now, in this Edgar Award-winning novel, the ex-cop and unlicensed P.I.. has been hired to prove that socialite Richard Thurman orchestrated the murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife.
During Scudder's hard-drinking years, he left a piece of his soul on every seedy corner of the Big Apple.
But this case is more depraved and more potentially devastating than anything he experienced while floundering in the urban depths.
Because this investigation is leading Scudder on a frightening grand tour of New York's sex-for-sale underworld, where an innocent young life is simply a commodity to be bought and perverted… and then destroyed.
A Walk Among the Tombstones
A new breed of entrepreneurial monster has set up shop in the big city. Ruthless, ingenious murderers, they prey on the loved ones of those who live outside the law, knowing that criminals will never run to the police, no matter how brutal the threat. So other avenues for justice must be explored, which is where ex-cop turned P.I.. Matthew Scudder comes in.
Scudder has no love for the drug dealers and poison peddlers who now need his help. Nevertheless, he is determined to do whatever it takes to put an elusive pair of thrill-kill extortionists out of business—
for they are using the innocent to fuel their terrible enterprise.
The Devil Knows You're Dead
In this city, there is little sense and no rules. Those who fly the highest often come crashing down the hardest— like successful young Glenn Holtzmann, randomly blown away by a deranged derelict at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue. Unlicensed P.I.. Matt Scudder thinks Holtzmann was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Others think differently— like Thomas Sadecki, brother of the crazed Vietnam vet accused of the murder, who wants Scudder to prove his brother innocent.
But no one is truly innocent in this unmerciful metropolis, including Matthew Scudder, whose curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart… and to passions and revelations that could destroy everything he loves.
