Facing his demons in his first year of sobriety, Matthew Scudder finds himself on the trail of a killer. When Scudder's childhood friend Jack Ellery is murdered, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins, Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead: Ellery's Alcoholics Anonymous list of people he wronged. One of them may be a killer, but that's not necessarily Scudder's greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery's world may lead him right back to the bar stool.

A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF is the 17th book in the Matthew Scudder series and it is also the last full-length novel in the series. It's actually a throwback to an earlier version of Scudder where he has only recently quit drinking and attending AA meetings. The novel starts off in the present with Matt having one of his late-night conversations with his friend, Mick Ballou. The discussion hinges around old times and Matt goes on to relate a story that happened to him years ago about a childhood friend named Jack Ellery. At the time, Matt was close to being one year sober and was in a relationship with his girlfriend, Jan. Jack is also a recovering alcoholic who Matt runs into at an AA meeting. Matt hadn't seen Jack since they were kids together and while Matt became a policeman and solved crimes, Jack went the other way and committed them. Ellery has changed though and is trying to make amends in line with the AA program. But then, he is killed by being shot once in the head and once in the mouth. Since he was trying to atone for past sins, chances are he had some knowledge that someone didn't want shared. Matt is hired by Jack's AA sponsor to look into his death which may also end up putting Matt and others in peril. And could this be what drives Matt back to the bottle?

This was another very good entry in the Scudder series and I'm sorry to see it end. I've now read all of the full-length novels in the series. This one sort of does a full circle and goes back to Scudder's earlier life. In fact some of the earlier cases are mentioned in the book including A STAB IN THE DARK, about an ice-pick killer. Of course this, as well as the entire series, focuses on Scudder's fight with alcoholism and shows how during his first year in AA he was constantly around drinking and struggling to stay sober. The novel also has a theme of change and how time changes everything and everyone. Many of Matt's old haunts are no longer there and many of his friends and acquaintances have passed on. This overall is a great series that I would highly recommend.

Culling out some books for Goodwill. Hope someone will enjoy them.

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