A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season319 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbScudder is hired to learn whether TV producer Richard Thurman staged his wife’s murder, while a separate snuff film investigation runs alongside.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA reader blog says its twisting plot is rivaled only by The Long Goodbye, on the shelf at 320 pages.
The case for it
on the plotting
“with the care and precision of an expert watchmaker”
Nick Kolakowski · CriminalElement.com, 2019 on Scudder’s routine
“attends AA meetings at all hours of the day, all over the city”
Unsigned review · Publishers Weekly, 1991 on Mick Ballou
“a man of surprising philosophy, but yet willing to kill for a buck”
a book blog on the narration
“This gives the story a disarmingly down-to-earth, genuine feel”
four stars · a book blog
The case against
on the long talks
“give the narrative a lazy, even slack, feel”
Unsigned review · Kirkus Reviews, 1991 on the tension
“the same level of tension that Block brought to Eight Million and Boneyard”
a book blog on the dark subject
“It really is a dark, dark book”
Simon Kernick · Five Books, 2011 on the coincidence
“there is a heavy dose of coincidence, and I don’t like coincidence”
four stars · a book blog
