The Sins of the Fathers (Lawrence Block, 1976)

basics...
The first Matt Scudder mystery sees the ex-cop doing a 'favour' for the father of recently murdered Wendy Hanniford by delving into her life to find out who she was. The killer, her repressed gay roommate, Richie Vanderpoel, has already professed his guilt and hanged himself in his cell, but is the case really as open and shut as the police believe?

brilliant...
This is a wonderful little (182 page) crime novel, written with real skill and economy of language. Block's second page description of 'a kid with a tentative beard' charmed me and drew me deeper into Scudder's grey world, as interested by the words used to craft the mystery as the story itself. From the first chapter you know that the murder can't be as clean cut as it appears and Scudder slowly peels back the layers to reveal more about both victim and killer that ultimately leads to an unexpected yet I-should-have-seen it revelation about what really happened. Scudder is an interesting flawed hero - he retired from the force after a bullet meant for a thief ricocheted and killed a child - with a less than black and white view of the world. He doesn't want to solve the crime for monetary gain or for his bosses (he has none) but to lay to rest the spirits of Wendy and Richie. For a book from the seventies, the depiction of Richie's struggle with his homosexuality is sensitively played - other characters may judge him but Scudder doesn't, he's happy to live and let live, unless you're evil and a murderer that is. 

briefly...
A quick read that stays with you, and a protagonist to believe in, I will search out more from Lawrence Block.