"Right up there with Mr. Block's best....A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF keeps us guessing."--Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

Facing his demons in his first year of sobriety, Matthew Scudder finds himself on the trail of a killer. When Scudder's childhood friend Jack Ellery is murdered, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins, Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead: Ellery's Alcoholics Anonymous list of people he wronged. One of them may be a killer, but that's not necessarily Scudder's greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery's world may lead him right back to the bar stool.

In a novel widely celebrated by critics and readers, Lawrence Block circle back to how it all began, reestablishing the Matthew Scudder series as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction.

勞倫斯•布洛剋（Lawrence Block，1938—），

享譽世界的美國偵探小說大師，當代硬漢派偵探小說最傑齣的代錶。他的小說不僅在美國備受推崇，還跨越大西洋，徵服瞭自詡為偵探小說故鄉的歐洲。

偵探小說界最重要的兩個奬項，愛倫•坡奬終身大師奬和鑽石匕首奬均肯定瞭勞倫斯•布洛剋的大師地位。此外，他還曾三獲愛倫•坡奬、兩獲馬耳他之鷹奬、四獲夏姆斯奬得主。