It’s been eighteen hours since Paula Wittlauer threw
herself out of her seventeenth floor apartment that early Friday morning in
September and crash landed into the street just down from Mathew Scudder’s own
residence. Among the others at Armstrong’s the night before, Paula had served Scudder
and talked to him while she worked her last shift. Everything had seemed normal
and he had no indication at all that she was in distress. Just a few hours
later, for some reason, she took off all her clothes and went off the balcony
in one final swan dive.
The death bothers him on so many levels so when Ruth
Wittlauer, Paula’s sister, is sure it wasn’t suicide, Scudder doesn’t dismiss
her out of hand. Considering her lifestyle, Paula’s death may be a suicide--intentional
or accidental. It could have been something entirely else so he agrees to look
into the matter.
What follows is an entertaining noir type short story
previously published in “Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine” in 1977 and again
in “The
Night & the Music: The Mathew Scudder Stories” published in 2011. It
depicts a somewhat cynical detective in New York long before the towers fell
working a case that is both complicated throughout and yet simply explained at
the end. It’s a solidly good short story and far better than a lot of the
novels out there today.
Out the Window: A Mathew Scudder Story
Lawrence
Block
December
2012
Kindle
ASIN# B00AK2DFLE
38
Pages (approximate)
$2.99
Material snagged during the author’s recent free
e-book promotion.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
Posts
4 comments:
It's amazing how some of the older works can stand the test of time and still shine!
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
That they can, Morgan. Very nice when it happens.
And thank you for stopping by.
Kevin
I've been a fan of Lawrence Block for longer than I care to admit (LOL) and I appreciate your thoughtful review.
Blessings,
Mary Beth
https://sites.google.com/site/marybethmageewrites/
Thank you, Mary Beth. I appreciate it.
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