A Time to Scatter Stones: A Matthew Scudder Novella by Lawrence Block

After Matt retired from the police, I didn't expect him to come back.  But he's being a private eye now and he takes on any case that sounds interesting.  This time his wife has found one for him.  And it's interesting...

The author sent me a copy of this book to read for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

It's like visiting old friends to visit with Scudder again.   Now that he's not a cop, he has to work around that to get the information he needs but he manages and he calls in old favors.

His wife works at helping prostitutes out of that life.  She's mentoring one young woman who has quit but one man doesn't take no for an answer.  He's glad she gave the other men goodbyes but he wants to control and own her and he's even raped her.  She only knows his first name (Paul) and she suspects that might be made up.  He begins his quest to find him and warn him off.

He hangs out in her neighborhood.  Gets an artist to draw a sketch of the man's face and then starts showing that around.  She moves.  Paul finds her again.  She moves once more.  And Scudder gets more serious.

They have a confrontation in her old apartment and the man is big and powerful and Matt is getting old.  Who will win?