Matthew (Matt) Scudder is a fictional character who appears in novels by American crime writer
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block (born June 24, 1938) is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Ma ...
.
Fictional biography
Scudder debuted in 1976's ''The Sins of the Fathers'' as an
alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...
ex-cop who had recently quit the
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
and left his family after accidentally causing the death of a young girl. Living in a rent-controlled hotel room in
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the ea ...
, he earns his living as an unlicensed private investigator—or, as he puts it, "doing favors for friends."
The fifth entry, 1982's ''Eight Million Ways to Die'' concludes with Scudder introducing himself at an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Block planned to end the series there, but a promise he'd made to supply an editor friend with an original short story resulted in "By the Dawn's Early Light," a story set during Scudder's drinking days in the 1970s (
Abe Beame
Abraham David Beame (March 20, 1906February 10, 2001) was the 104th mayor of New York City from 1974 to 1977. As mayor, he presided over the city during its fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when the city was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.
...
is mentioned as New York mayor) but told from the perspective of a recovering addict. The story won a
Shamus Award
The Shamus Award is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction ( P. I. = Private investigator) genre novels and short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one ...
for best short story of 1985. Block would go on to expand on that success with 1986's ''
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes''
From then on, Scudder's circumstances rarely remain the same for long. In ''On the Cutting Edge'' (1989), while looking into a missing prostitute he meets Mick Ballou, a brutal
Irish mafia member and saloonkeeper who improbably becomes one of his best friends. 1990's ''A Ticket to the Boneyard'' reunites him with Elaine Mardell, a hooker from his days on the force, and concludes with him staging the suicide of a man who had threatened their lives.
1991's ''A Dance at the Slaughterhouse'' introduces TJ, a young
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
hustler who becomes Scudder's protégé and closest ally.
1992's ''
A Walk Among the Tombstones'' sees him struggling with Elaine's role as a prostitute (as well as a pair of violent kidnappers),
while 1994's ''A Long Line of Dead Men'' ends with the two marrying.
While Scudder never takes another drink (coming closest in ''Boneyard''), alcohol continues to play a large role in his life: he continues to attend
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (which constitute a central setting of the later novels), and have long late-night conversations with Ballou. He also has a standing Sunday night dinner with his
sponsor, Jim Faber, who eventually becomes a surrogate father figure.
Scudder's friendship with Ballou comes back to haunt him in ''Everybody Dies'' (1999). A gang war claims the lives of several of Scudder's friends due to his association with Ballou, but he afterwards stays close with Ballou.
2005's ''All the Flowers Are Dying,'' the sixteenth title in the series, seemed to have been written as a possible final chapter.
However, a new Scudder book, titled ''A Drop of the Hard Stuff,''—a second "flashback" novel—was published in 2011 and again set in the 1970s but during Scudder's first year of sobriety.
The novella ''A Time to Scatter Stones'' was published in 2019, featuring an aging Scudder helping friends of his wife Elaine who want to escape sex work.
List of Matthew Scudder novels
* ''The Sins of the Fathers'' (1976)
* ''In the Midst of Death'' (1976) (#3 in the series)
* ''Time to Murder and Create'' (1977) (#2 in the series)
* ''A Stab in the Dark'' (1981)
* ''Eight Million Ways to Die'' (1982)
* ''
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes'' (1986)
* ''Out on the Cutting Edge'' (1989)
* ''A Ticket to the Boneyard'' (1990)
* ''A Dance at the Slaughterhouse'' (1991)
* ''
A Walk Among the Tombstones'' (1992)
* ''The Devil Knows You're Dead'' (1993)
* ''A Long Line of Dead Men'' (1994)
* ''Even the Wicked'' (1997)
* ''Everybody Dies'' (1998)
* ''Hope to Die'' (2001)
* ''All the Flowers Are Dying'' (2005)
* ''A Drop of the Hard Stuff'' (2011)
* ''The Night and the Music'' (2011) (short story anthology)
* ''A Time to Scatter Stones'' (2019) (novella)
* ''The Night and the Music'' (2021) (2nd edition of the 2011 short story anthology. Includes all the original stories, plus the 2019 novella ''A Time to Scatter Stones'')
In other media
* The character of Matthew Scudder was portrayed by
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent ac ...
in ''
8 Million Ways to Die
''8 Million Ways to Die'' is a 1986 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, and Andy Garcia. It was Ashby's final film, and the first attempt to adapt the Matthew Scudder detectiv ...
'', in which the setting was moved to Southern California and characterized Scudder as a
sheriff's deputy. The movie alters his backstory; in the film, he kills an adult drug dealer in front of the dealer's family rather than a young girl on a darkened street. Reviews were poor and the film was a
box office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
.
* Matthew is played by
Liam Neeson
William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Tony Awards. In 2020, he was placed 7th on ''The I ...
in ''
A Walk Among the Tombstones'' (2014), a performance that was well received by Block.
[Block, Lawrence. (Twitter]
#AWalkAmongTheTombstones today. Liam Neeson brilliant as Scudder, Scott Frank script and direction tops. Set for September release.
18 October 2013. Tweet. The movie also used Scudder's original backstory as depicted in the novels. This film was a modest financial success and earned better reviews than the previous Scudder film, but no further Scudder movies are known to be in the works.
External links
Official website*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scudder, Matthew
Scudder, Matthew
Fictional New York City Police Department detectives
Matthew Scudder
Fictional alcohol abusers
Literary characters introduced in 1976
Characters in American novels of the 20th century
Characters in American novels of the 21st century
Thriller film characters