Today, Kevin R. Tipple changes things up a little. A Time to Scatter Stones is a Matt Scudder novella by Lawrence Block. As always, thank you, Kevin, for your reviews without spoilers.

It is late September as A Time To Scatter Stones: A Mathew Scudder Novella begins Elaine and
Scudder enjoying a nice evening walk home after an evening out with friends. A subject almost
came up while they were there and then Elaine thought better of it and the moment passed. Now
it is coming up again as they head towards home.

That moment passed because Elaine thought better about talking about her past. A past that
includes her years as a prostitute. She has started attending a support group of sorts for those who
were once prostitutes and got out as well as those in the life now and looking to get out. In short,
think of it as AA for prostitutes and that pretty much covers it. A fellow member, Ellen
Lipscomb, is being sponsored by Ellaine and she has a problem.

A former client thinks that now that Ellen Lipscomb is not seeing other men, she is his exclusive
property. Ellen wants Scudder’s help in getting rid of the guy as she does not want him around.
She certainly never wants to see him again and didn’t want to see him the night he barged into
her home. But, she was scared. He’s big, confident, and it was easier to play it safe and let him
have again what he had before than try to stop it.

She moved afterwards, hid for a while, and then got into a new place. That did not work as he
has found her again. She doesn’t know his real name or anything about him so she can’t go to the
cops. Not to mention the fact that she feels the cops would never take her seriously because of
her past line of work. Despite the fact she is scared of him, she does not realize just how much
danger she is possibly in from this guy. She needs Scudder’s help more than she knows and he
knows how limited his help can be at this age.

For Scudder, his old contacts on the police force are dead or moved to a warmer climate. The
cops he knows now pretty much know nothing about him and therefore won’t take anything he
says seriously. Any other help might have gotten back in the day is nonexistent now. Then there
is the fact that he is an old man with a troublesome knee so the physical angle of dealing with the
problem is out. The old dog is still plenty capable though and is on the case in A Time To Scatter
Stones: A Mathew Scudder Novella.

It goes without saying that this book is a solidly good read and part of a great series. This novella
unspools at a leisurely pace with musings about life, passion, addictions, and other topics as they
come up. These musings usually take the form of interesting conversations between Scudder and
Elaine. There is also a touch of erotic here that is fairly tame and yet will offend some readers. In
short, much is going on here beyond the core mystery problem. While those other things tend to
slow down the overall pace, they also bring nuance and depth to A Time To Scatter Stones: A
Mathew Scudder Novella.

A good read and one well worth your time.

I was privileged to receive a digital ARC of this book a number of weeks ago with no
expectations of a review. My copy also included an introduction to the upcoming anthology, At
Home in the Dark.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019, 2023