The Night and the Music by Lawrence Block

First published in 2011; published in a deluxe edition by Subterranean Press on September 30, 2021

Lawrence Block has always been an observer of humanity. Much of his fiction fits within a softer, less hardboiled version of the noir tradition. Not long ago, Subterranean Press released a volume of Block’s stories about Bernie Rhodenbarr, the gentleman bandit. The Night and the Music collects short stories that feature Block’s best recurring character, Matthew Scudder. It concludes with Block's explanation of his history with Scudder and his memories of the collected stories.

Scudder began the series as a damaged man, not quite an antihero but far from a role model. Scudder is an ex-cop. When he was on the force, he shot at a murderer and one of his shots killed a little girl. End of his job, end of his marriage, end of his relationship with his children, end of his sobriety. “People go through changes and life does the damnedest things to us all.”

Scudder’s life has changed for the better over the years that Block has written about him. Over the course of 17 novels published between 1976 and 2011, Scudder stopped drinking and married a former hooker. Throughout the series, Scudder never lost his empathy for individuals who have lived unfortunate lives.

Scudder’s world is filled with corrupt and racist cops, newsstand gossips, and neighborhood residents who are panhandlers, drunks, homeless, unbalanced. Scudder tolerates the cops and treats the residents with dignity and respect. He sees the people on the street, even as wealthier residents pretend they don’t exist or want them chased away.

“A Candle for the Bag Lady” is the best story in the volume and one of the best short stories in crime fiction. A shopping bag lady on the periphery of Scudder’s existence is murdered. She leaves him $1,200 in her will. Scudder investigates both the murder and the reason she named him as her beneficiary. The story is about the ways that people touch lives without knowing the impact they’ve made. The moral of the story is that everybody matters. Whether we think about them or not, whether we notice them or not, they matter.

Most of the other stories are quite good. A man claims to be framed for his wife’s murder and asks for Scudder’s help. Scudder gives him exactly what he deserves. A waitress at Scudder’s gin joint dives out a seventeenth-floor window, naked. Her sister believes she was murdered. Scudder investigates the case, taking on a locked door mystery in the process. Years after Scudder sent a man to prison for murder, the man tells Scudder his life story. The story is interesting because of the unusual motive that the man had for killing his lover — and because of the gruesome way in which the killer achieved his objective.

In one of the most entertaining stories, Scudder recalls a time when he was a somewhat corrupt cop who was asked to help some poker players deal with a stabbing death. Scudder immediately sees through their lies but also sees how he can create an outcome that will do justice while making everyone happy.

In the collection’s most offbeat story, Scudder joins a crew that has been hired to confiscate unlicensed Batman products from New York street vendors. Scudder realizes he doesn’t have the heart to bully people who don’t speak English and don’t know anything about copyright law. Another story that breaks the pattern of private detective fiction is a sensitive contemplation of AIDS and death, a story that has Scudder looking for an angel of death who might be a mercy killer.

I love Block’s dialog, the way collateral characters ramble about nothing yet reveal something of their place in the world. For my money, Block has always written some of the best dialog in crime fiction.

A few of the stories failed to resonate with me. The title story and a couple of others seem designed to tie up loose ends in Scudder’s life; they don’t work well as independent stories. Most of the stories, however, will appeal to fans of the Scudder novels — which should include most fans of crime fiction.

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