David Trevor here. I mentioned to LB that we were a long time between newsletters, and that we really ought to share a couple of reviews, etc. “So write one,” he said, and went back to whatever he was doing. (Don’t ask.)
I’ll start with The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder. It’s #20 in the Scudder series, and I’ve heard LB call it the capstone thereof. (I don’t think I ever heard the word before, and I like it so much I stuck it on the top of this newsletter. The Scudder Capstone, now that I think about it, could have been the title of a late Robert Ludlum novel.)
Anyway, a week ago I sent out eGalleys to our list of reviewers, and mentioned that there was no need to hold reviews until the 6/24 release date, since we were already accepting pre-orders.
There may have been a few reviews we haven’t seen yet, but here are two that bode well, the first from James Reasoner, who had this to say at his blog Rough Edges:
“Is the autobiography of a fictional character still fiction? I think that’s what you’d have to call it. Not that it really matters in this case. Whatever else it is, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER is a very good book.
“Those of you who follow Lawrence Block’s career know that he’s been in a contemplative mood the past few years, publishing several books that serve as a look back and summing up not only of his life as a professional writer but also the lives of some of the characters he’s created. A quote from early in this book addresses that: ‘One reaches an age when the past is as interesting as the present, and a bit less difficult to make sense of.’
“This tendency can be seen in his most recent novel, THE BURGLAR WHO MET FREDRIC BROWN and in the Matt Scudder collection THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC and the Scudder novella A TIME TO SCATTER STONES. Block brings this trend to its logical conclusion by letting Scudder tell the story of his life up to the point where Block began chronicling his cases with THE SINS OF THE FATHER. As he has Scudder say in the book, ‘And what the hell am I writing now? I suppose it’s the part between the books, the part you’d skip.’
“Yes, this concept is pretty meta, as they say. But it works. Since Scudder is the narrator of all the previous novels and stories about him, the voice is the same. Scudder the character takes a few gentle shots at Block the author for changing things in the fiction, such as his birthday. And he fills in the background on events that happened in some of the novels. But for the most part, this is a straightforward telling of Matt Scudder’s life and how he got to the point where the novels take up the story. It’s a tale that is, in many ways, compelling in its ordinariness. Scudder is no superhero, no eccentric genius of a detective, just a fairly ordinary guy with instincts that made him a good cop and unlicensed private detective, a guy with a lot of admirable qualities and a few deep flaws that threaten those better qualities but never quite overwhelm them. You just can’t help liking him, which of course is one of the appeals of the long-running series about him.
“THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER isn’t a mystery and I’m not sure you can even call it a novel. But it’s a very well-written book that kept me turning the pages and thoroughly entertained me. It’ll be out in June, and you can pre-order the e-book already. I’m not sure what the plans are for print editions, but I know there’ll be some. This is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, and I give it a very high recommendation.”
And this from Dangerous Dan Schwent at Shelf Inflicted:
“I unexpectedly got this ARC in the mail from Lawrence Block’s camp. When you get an ARC from your favorite living crime writer (or one of his guys), you drop what you’re doing and get down to business.
“THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER really feels like Scudder writing a series of journal entries about his life, from his birth to a brother who died in infancy that may or may not have impacted him, to eventually becoming a cop and later the whiskey-drinking detective we first met in THE SINS OF THE FATHERS.
“Essentially, it’s more background to a well-loved character that doesn’t cut the legs out from anything we already know about him in any substantial way. There are no ‘Everything you know is wrong!’ revelations. Block’s style is as it ever was, as smooth as good whiskey. The account of his past fleshes out his past a bit, more details about Estrellita Rivera, Elaine, and Danny Boy Bell, for instance. We learn more about his time as a cop and even some of his pre-police activities like taking up boxing and thinking of becoming a plumber before he decided to become a cop.
“There’s a line Matt uses about meeting friends and wondering if he’ll ever see them again. That’s what this book feels like, probably the last Matthew Scudder book and maybe even Lawrence Block’s last one. Is the Autobiography of Matthew Scudder essential? Probably not. Will Matthew Scudder fans want to read it? Absolutely. My only gripe is that, like a bottle of good whiskey, I wish it had lasted a bit longer. 4.5 out of 5.”
Not bad, eh? As far as print editions are concerned, Subterranean Press will have the high end covered, with a signed-and-numbered limited hardcover edition coming sometime in the fall. And we’ll be releasing a trade paperback on the same day as the ebook, June 24, and in a well-ordered universe you’d be able to preorder it now—but for the time being you can only do so from Barnes & Noble, because the data hasn’t yet percolated through the Amazon system. (But keep checking. Amazon swears it’ll be up soon, possibly by the time you read this.)
Here are all the preorder links:
AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE KOBO APPLE
THALIA SMASHWORDS VIVLIO
A recent newsletter linked to this page, where LB posted a generous chunk of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER (or TAOMS, as we can refer to it henceforth). If you missed it, you might want to check it out, as it’s the best way I can think of to see for yourself whether TAOMS is something you want to curl up with. (Or “up with which you want to curl”—LB’s something of a fanatic about a preposition being a word you shouldn’t end a sentence with.)
Giving people a free look at 10% of TAOMS probably generated some preorders, while at the same time it warned off a few who wouldn’t have liked the book. LB decided a broader application of the underlying principle might not be a bad idea, and we’re now able to offer you a generous taste of three more fairly recent titles, like so:
THE BURGLAR WHO MET FREDRIC BROWN—A Preview!
Some questions keep coming up:
How can one get an autographed copy? Not from us, so please don’t ask. LB will very likely be doing an appearance at the Mysterious Bookshop right around the time of the book’s on-sale date, at which time he’ll sign books for those in attendance, as well as for all who order from the bookshop by phone or online. I’ll let you know as soon as we set a date, but with or without a formal date, Mysterious Bookshop will have signed copies of our paperback edition.
How can other book dealers place orders for THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW SCUDDER? We’ve never been set up to handle wholesale orders, but that’s changing with TAOMS. Our web page for Wholesale Orders enables anyone buying five or more copies of the book to get a discount of up to 40%. Payment is required upon placement of your order, and books are not returnable, but that’s all there is to it. As far as we’re concerned, if you order five or more copies, you’re a bookseller.
And, as far as I’m concerned, that’s as long as this newsletter really needs to be.
Cheers,
David Trevor for
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