Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
An anonymous letter writer, the self-styled "Will of the People" targets prominent criminals and evil-doers that the law cannot reach - and kills them. All of them are dubbed 'society offenders who might as well be in the ground by the Will' - who sends his hit-list to a tabloid newspaper columnist. His next target is a Criminal Defence Attorney who has gotten one too many killers off a murder rap. Given the failure of New York's finest to protect his predecessors, Adrian Whitfield wants the most stubborn PI in the Big Apple watching his back. He calls Matt Scudder. The ex-alcoholic, ex-cop has finally conceded to accepting a license to investigate after years of doing favours for friends. Protecting a high profile figure like Whitfield isn't really his thing, but Whitfield knows a thing or two himself and in Scudder he's picked the right man to pin down the "Will of the People".

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked. A Matt Scudder Mystery. Orion, ISBN: 0752834509 (July, 2000), 340 p., £5.99.

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
Matthew Scudder knows that justice is an elusive commodity in the big city, where a harmless man can be shot dead in a public place criminals fly free through holes in a tattered legal system. But now a vigilante is roaming among the millions, executing those he fees deserve to die. He calls himself "The Will of the People"--an ingenious serial killer who announces his specific murderous intentions to the media before carrying through on his threats. A child molester, a Mafia don, a violent anti-abortionist -- even the protected and untouchable are being ruthlessly erased by New York's latest celebrity avenger.

Scudder knows that no one is innocent -- but who among us has the right to play God? It is a question that will haunt the licensed p.i. on his journey through the bleak city grays, as he searches for the sanity in urban madness... and for a frighteningly efficient killer who can do the impossible.

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked. Avon Books, ISBN: 0380725347 (February, 1998), 400 p., $6.99.

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked (UK 1997)

From the Publisher:
An anonymous letter writer, the self-styled 'Will of the People', targets prominent criminals and evil-doers that the law cannot reach - and kills them. All of them are dabbed by the Will 'society offenders who might as well he in the ground' - he sends his hit-list to a tabloid newspaper columnist. His latest target is a Criminal Defence Attorney who's got one too many killers off a murder charge. Given the failure of New York's finest to protect his predecessors, DA Adrian Whitfield wants the most stubborn PI in the Big Apple watching his back.

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked. A Matt Scudder Mystery. Phoenix, ISBN: 075380218X (September, 1997), 277 p., £5.99.

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
New York's a tough town. Hard to impress. Shrugs off hype, casts a cold eye on glitz.
Been there. Done that. Forget the t-shirt.

But once in a blue moon a killer with street smarts and a sense of theater will reach out and take the city by the throat.

Maybe he'll write letters to a popular tabloid columnist, proclaiming himself the answer to a failed criminal justice system. Maybe he'll point a finger at the kind of villain the law can't touch. A child killer who got off on a technicality, say. A top mobster with decades of blood on his hands. A rabble-rouser who incites others to murder.
Nice guys, one in all.

Maybe he'll sign himself "Will," as in "The Will of the People."

Then suppose he takes aim at a respectable lawyer, a defense attorney with a roster of unpopular clients. Suppose the lawyer's a friend of Matt Scudder.

Scudder is New York to the bone. He's as tough as the big town itself, as hard to impress. And now he's up against the self-styled Will of the People in a city with eight million ways to die, a city where not just the good guys but even the wicked...

GET WORSE THAN THEY DESERVE

Lawrence Block: Even the Wicked. A Matthew Scudder Novel. William Morrow, ISBN: 0688141811 (February, 1997), 328 p., $23.00.