All the Flowers Are Dying

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752877674 ISBN 13: 9780752877679

Publisher: ORION PAPERBACKS, 2006

In his sixteenth Matthew Scudder novel, All the Flowers Are Dying, New York Times bestselling author Lawrence Block takes the award-winning series to a new level of suspense and a new depth of characterization. Building on the critical and commercial success of Hope to Die, Block puts Scudder -- and the reader -- at the very edge of the abyss.

Scudder, a complex character who has grown and aged in real time, confronts the implacable challenge of mortality. But he must also tackle a determined, relentless, and icily inhuman adversary, perhaps the most unforgettable villain Block has ever created.

A man in a Virginia prison awaits execution for three hideous murders he swears, in the face of irrefutable evidence, he did not commit. A psychologist who claims to believe the convict spends hours with the man in his death row cell, and ultimately watches in the gallery as the lethal injection is administered. His work completed, the psychologist heads back to New York City to attend to unfinished business.

Meanwhile, Scudder has just agreed to investigate the ostensibly suspicious online lover of an acquaintance. It seems simple enough. At first. But when people start dying and the victims are increasingly closer to home, it becomes clear that a vicious killer is at work. And the final targets may be Matt and Elaine Scudder.

The suspense is breathtaking, the outcome never certain. A series that has garnered no end of awards -- the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe, the MalteseFalcon -- has ascended to a dizzying new height. With this novel, Lawrence Block, who recently received the Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom, is at the very top of his form.

About the Author:

Lawrence Block is one of the most widely recognized names in the mystery genre. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and is a four-time winner of the prestigious Edgar and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. He received the Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association—only the third American to be given this award. He is a prolific author, having written more than fifty books and numerous short stories, and is a devoted New Yorker and an enthusiastic global traveler.

From AudioFile:

With a title taken from the ballad "Danny Boy," Lawrence Block's sixteenth novel to feature Matthew Scudder is his darkest in years. When a woman he meets at an AA meeting asks him to check the background of her new boyfriend, Scudder finds his path crossed with that of a brilliant serial killer who changes his methods at will and leaves virtually no trace of his identity. Alan Sklar reads the novel with his customary professional precision. It isn't only his baritone vibrato that helps maintain Block's dark mood, but the way in which timing, pacing, and the subtlest vocal nuances define the characters as he narrates Scudder's close and unforgettable brush with evil. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine