Sometimes you open a novel and you just know you're in the hands of a master. In the case of Lawrence Block's latest Matt Scudder mystery, the tipoff is a brazenly simple plot premise, faultlessly executed. A Drop of the Hard Stuff is a prequel to the other 15 novels in the Scudder series. The opening finds Matt recalling the murder of a boyhood pal of his named Jack Ellery. Matt had reconnected with Ellery years ago at an AA meeting. Ellery was then working his way through the 12 steps and had just embarked on No. 9: making amends to people he'd harmed while he was drinking. Except someone silences Ellery before he can begin confessing to past crimes.

Like a lot of great mystery fiction, A Drop of the Hard Stuff is also a ghost story. Matt's attempt to exorcise his phantoms results in a classic tale about the stubborn persistence of memory and regret.

Maureen Corrigan
NPR