After the First Death - Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block's 1969 thriller After the First Death is a taut little murder mystery that revolves around a case of memory blackout. To all intents and purposes though, and certainly to any outside observer, it looks like Alex Penn has done it again; he's murdered another woman. The problem is he can't remember doing it.

Alex suffers from blackouts when he has been drinking and all the evidence that he has committed a murder the night before is right there in front of him; a prostitute with her throat cut lying on the floor of a hotel room. He has murdered before or at least that's what he did time for, four years until he got released on a technical appeal against an unsound conviction. Trouble is the woman he killed that time was also during a blackout, so he doesn't know what he is capable of.

As he goes on the run, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, Alex reluctantly tries to recall how this happened again and as fragments of memory come back he realises he is certain that he didn't kill the woman. Someone else came into the room and did it while he was too drunk, near unconscious and unable to intervene. But who would try to frame him? And why?

With Lawrence Block, you can count not just on a great thriller, but the writing in After the First Death is also terrific, direct and to the point. It draws you straight into the lurid storyline, the first person perspective probing the thought processes associated with crime, opportunity and motive, with little touches of literary and philosophical references mixed with some very politically incorrect observations and some social commentary on law and justice. Everything you want from a good piece of thriller noir.

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