A Dance At The Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block

I honestly don’t know what took me so long to get acquainted with Lawrence Block's books. Having read just two of his books 'Eight Millions Ways to Die' and 'The Sins of the Fathers'. Having liked both of them; I dived into A Dance at the Slaughter house.  Well I was instant fan of Lawrence Block writing, and had no apprehension regarding that, but could he able to deliver the same thrilling plot and story? I had my doubt, but I should have trusted him more.

 Richard Thruman woke up from his unconscious state to find his wife Amanda Thruman, gagged, beaten, raped and strangled to death beside him. The two burglars who did this heinous act also carried more or less same atrocity on him except they left him unconscious. This is what Richard says to responding police man who finds Richard with his hand and feet still bound.  Although the police suspect, foul play they had little evidence to contradict the theory, and not much scope to take it forward within their police limits.

Unlike police, an unlicensed private investigator is not bound by law, and Amanda’s brother knows it and meets P.I Matt Scudder to pry into this case and wants to clear the doubt clouds if Richard had anything to do with Amanda’s  murder.

 While studying Thruman’s movement, Matt visits a boxing arena where in his memory is triggered by a sight of a fatherly old man, caressing a younger boy. The sight reminds him of snuff film (a recording of the actual murder of human being passed around for entertainment purposes) he happened to watch six months back, where in the actors undoubtedly carried the same demeanor as the old man and boy. The bizarre similarity was enough to convince him to carry his own personnel investigation.  From there on Matt juggles with seemingly two different cases, and soon discovers the horrific connection between the two.

Yeah it’s a long shot occurrence, considering the time space between the two different mysteries, but Lawrence Block blends the two cases very well it forces the reader to forgo the massive coincidence.

I had learnt that Lawrence Block wrote soft porn before venturing into crime mystery, for which he is well known for, but even to him, it might not have been easy to describe some of the most sadistic and abominable scenes mentioned in the book.  Well its complete hard-boiled crime fiction for you.

I couldn’t comprehend the intention behind the chosen title, but it’s Lawrence Block that matters. One thing for sure, there won’t be any confusion on what book to choose when I visit my book store next time. Will soon return to another book in the series, once I complete the other books lined up.