ALL THE FLOWERS ARE DYING

With a title taken from the ballad “Danny Boy,” Lawrence Block’s sixteenth novel to feature Matthew Scudder is his darkest in years. When a woman he meets at an AA meeting asks him to check the background of her new boyfriend, Scudder finds his path crossed with that of a brilliant serial killer who changes his methods at will and leaves virtually no trace of his identity. Alan Sklar reads the novel with his customary professional precision. It isn’t only his baritone vibrato that helps maintain Block’s dark mood, but the way in which timing, pacing, and the subtlest vocal nuances define the characters as he narrates Scudder’s close and unforgettable brush with evil. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE/JULY 05]