Jerry Broadfield thinks he's a good cop. But he's been charged with extortion - and his former buddies in the NYPD would like to see him laid bare out on a morgue slab for squealing to a committee on police corruption. And when a dead hooker turns up in his apartment, he's saddled with a murder rap as well. Broadfield screams "frame-up" and nobody believes him - except ex-policeman-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder. But finding a killer among the stoolie-cop's sleazebag connections is going to be as difficult as finding a cold beer in Hell - which is where Scudder is headed if he sticks his nose in too deep.

整部小說開始於一個狀似不經意的小動作，在拳擊台觀眾席上，一個狀似父親的男子，把手放在一個狀似他兒子的小男孩額上，溫柔的把小男孩的褐髮往後攏，然而對瞥見這一幕的馬修史卡德而言，卻雷擊般宛如看到該隱的印記一個記敘著謀殺和死亡的印記。
獲獎紀錄：
1992年愛倫坡獎最佳小說

我一直想走进她的生活，结果却一再地面对她的死亡。
纽约格林尼治村一名妓女被刺死在公寓中，整张床成了血海；与她同住的同性恋男孩浑身是血冲上街头，被当作凶犯抓了起来，随后在监狱自尽。
女孩的继父找到马修•斯卡德，希望了解自己的女儿到底是什么人，为什么招来杀身之祸。
劳伦斯·布洛克是当今欧美硬汉派侦探小说第一人，他的作品拥有最多崇拜者、精英分子最爱收藏。
《父之罪》是新星出版社强力推出的“午夜文库”系列的第一部作品，该系列遴选160年侦探小说史上最纯粹、最经典、最具智慧的作品，让阅读成为娱乐，让阅读成为冒险，让阅读成为智能训练。喜欢阅读侦探小说的读者还可以加入新星出版社的“午夜俱乐部”，参加很多读书活动。
作者劳伦斯·布洛克被誉为“在纽约游走的忧郁灵魂”，很多精英分子为之迷狂。侯孝贤把他的书推荐给梁朝伟，后者希望扮演他笔下的角色；朱天心说布洛克——“他是类型小说大师，又是一位不愿驯服的抗拒的越界者”……四十年来，布洛克伴随着落魄固执的马修·斯卡德，还有绅士大盗伯尼·罗登巴尔、睡不着觉的密探伊凡·谭纳、冷酷杀手凯勒，见证了纽约最极致的繁华与罪恶。即使第一页就暴露了凶手，对他的作品也没有影响。有人说，布洛克的本领是先在血腥里看见恐怖，然后把恐怖化成悬疑再在悬疑里寻求理解，理解杀人者为何而杀，被杀者因何而死。

一个低调的“三十一俱乐部”是一切问题的开始。从一开始提到这个俱乐部，便吸引着人往下看：“这个俱乐部的结构很简单。三十一个人格高尚的男子宣誓，每年五月的第一个星期四要相聚一堂，吃饭，报告这一年来他们生命中的改变，同时向这一年过世的人致敬。每一年我们都会宣读死者名单。当三十一俱乐部只剩下一个人之时，他就得找三十个理想的候选人来当会员，在特定的这个晚上让他们聚在一起。然后朗诵三十个已经过世的兄弟名字，烧掉名单，结束这一章，并开启下一章。” 这个低调的“三十一俱乐部”自从一九六一年五月的第一个星期四开启新章后，三十二年里死了十四个人，有自杀的、有意外的、有他杀的，这么高的死亡率难道只是偶然吗？

A successful socialite's beautiful wife was raped and murdered in her own home -- and Matt Scudder believes the victim's "grieving" husband was responsible for the outrage. But to prove it, the haunted p.i. must descend into the depths of New York's sex-for-sale underworld, where young lives are commodities to be bought, perverted...and destroyed.

Matthew Scudder is finally on the straight and narrow when he runs into "High-Low" Jack Ellery, a childhood friend from the Bronx. In Scudder, Jack sees the moral man he might have become. In Jack, Scudder sees the hard-won sobriety he hopes to achieve.
Then Ellery, following to the letter the dictates of Alcoholics Anonymous' infamous twelve steps, is shot down while attempting to atone for past sins, and Scudder is drawn into a murder investigation that threatens to upset his path toward recovery--and get him killed in the process.
Exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and redemption, for Lawrence Block, A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF circles back to how it all began, reestablishing why the Matthew Scudder series is widely regarded as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction.

马修决定退休了，只参加戒酒聚会、与妻子伊莱恩过着悠闲的生活。但他还是同意接手最后一宗调查。露易丝终于遇到一个自己喜欢的男人，但她总觉得他对自己有所隐瞒，雇马修调查真相。
在马修查出这个人的真正身份之前，发生了一起谋杀案，杀手的目标似乎是伊莱恩……

When Byrne and Susan Hollander are killed in a brutal home invasion, the whole city catches its collective breath. A few days later the killers turn up dead behind a locked door in Brooklyn. One has killed his partner, then himself. The city sighs with relief. The cops close the case.</p>Matt and Elaine Scudder were in the same room with the Hollanders hours before their deaths. In spite of himself, Scudder is drawn to the Hollander case. The closer he looks, the more he senses the presence of a third man, a puppet master who manipulated his two accomplices, then cut their strings when he was done with them.</p>The villain who looms in the shadows is one of Block's most inspired creations, cold and diabolical, murdering for pleasure and profit. Nobody but Scudder even suspects he exists -- and he's not done killing.</p>He's just getting started....</p>

A philosophical yet practical gentleman, Bernie Rhodenbarr possesses many admirable qualities: charm, intelligence, sparkling wit, and unwavering loyalty. Of course, he also has this special talent and a taste for life's finer things. So he's more than willing to perform some vengeful larceny for a friend -- ripping off a smarmy, particularly deserving plastic surgeon -- for fun and a very tidy profit. But during a practice run at another address, Bernie's forced to hide under a bed when the lady of the house returns unexpectedly with the worst kind of blind date in tow. In no time, Bernie's up to his burgling neck in big trouble. Again. And this time it includes his arrest, no less than four murders, and more outrageous coincidences than any self-preserving felon should ever be required to tie together.

A man in a Virginia prison awaits execution for three horrific murders he must have committed but swears he didn't . . . An aging investigator in New York City has seen too much and lost too much -- and is ready to leave the darkness behind . . . But a nightmare is coming home -- because a brilliant, savage, patient monster has unfinished business in the big city . . . and a hunger that can be satisfied only by fear and the slow, agonizing death of Matthew Scudder and the woman he loves.

This is the fourth novel of the Hit Man Keller Series by Lawrence Block.
Keller's a hit man. For years now he's had places to go and people to kill.
But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he heads home, and guess what?
One more job. Paid in advance, so what's he going to do? Give the money back? In Des Moines, Keller stalks his designated target and waits for the client to give him the go-ahead. And one fine morning he's picking out stamps for his collection (Sweden 1-5, the official reprints) at a shop in Urbandale when somebody guns down the charismatic governor of Ohio.
Back at his motel, Keller's watching TV when they show the killer's face. And there's something all too familiar about that face. . . .
Keller calls his associate Dot in White Plains, but there is no answer. He's stranded halfway across the country, every cop in America's just seen his picture, his ID and credit cards are no longer good, and he just spent almost all of his cash on the stamps.
Now what?

在线阅读本书
It's not that used bookstore owner and part-time burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr believes the less legal of his two professions is particularly ethical. (It is, however, a rush, and he is very good at it.) He just thinks it's unfair to face a prison term for his legitimate activities. After appraising the worth of a rich man's library -- conveniently leaving his fingerprints everywhere in the process -- Bernie finds he's the cops' prime suspect when his client is murdered. Someone has framed Bernie Rhodenbarr better than they do it at the Whitney. And if he wants to get out of this corner he's been masterfully painted into, he'll have to get to the bottom of a rather artful -- if multiply murderous -- scam.

Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller-by-day, burglar-by-night is back in action in his ninth outing. Our burglar finds himself in a jam when he agrees to break into the Paddington Hotel and steal the letters of a famous novelist. Once he arrives, he finds the letters gone, and the agent's dead body...and the police fast on his trail.

<P align=left>Louis Pinell, the recently apprehended "Icepick Prowler," freely admits to having slain seven young women nine years ago -- but be swears it was a copycat who killed Barbara Ettinger Matthew Scudder believes him. But the trail to Ettinger's true murderer is twisted, dark and dangerous...and even colder than the almost decade-old corpse the p.i. is determined to avenge.</P>

<center>This is a city that seduces dreamers...then eats their dreams.</center><p align="left">Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best -- and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love -- and death -- in the worst possible places.</p>

Twelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder's name -- are turning up dead. Because a vengeful maniac is determined not to rest until he's driven his nemesis back to the bottle...and then to the boneyard.

Bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr's in love--with an exotic Eastern European beauty who shares his obsession with Humphrey Bogart movies. He's in heaven, munching popcorn with his new amour every night at a Bogart Film Festival--until their "Casablanca"-esque idyll is cut short by his other secret passion: "burglary." When he's hired to pilfer a portfolio of valuable documents from a Park Avenue apartment, Bernie can hardly refuse. But the occupant's early return forces Bernie to flee empty-handed--and he soon finds himself implicated in a murder. Before you can say "who stole the strawberries?" he's hunting for a killer, up to his neck in the outrageous intrigues of a tiny Balkan nation . . . and menaced by more sinister fat men and unsavory toadies than the great Bogie himself butted heads with in pursuit of that darn bird