I just finished When the Sacred Ginmill Closes. It was the
first Scudder novel I've read where he's still drinking
(although it is told in flashback by a sober Scudder.) I was
struck by how morally ambiguous it was when compared to the
other two books in the series I've read. In Ticket to the
Boneyard and The Flowers Are Dying, there's really no
question that Scudder is a good guy, and that the actions he
takes are the right thing to do, even if those actions are
illegal. In Ginmill, Scudder's motives and actions are
suspect, particularly with the way he handles Tommy Tillary,
who hired him to investigate the murder of his wife. At the
end it's not at all clear that Tillary is, in fact, guilty of
the crime, and yet Scudder takes some pretty drastic action
to make sure Tillary gets what Scudder thinks he has coming.
It was not what I was expecting. I was expecting something
more conventional, like the other novels I've mention. Are
the earlier Scudder novels more ambiguous?
(And thanks to everyone who made recommendations in the
Best Block Novel thread)
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