Is there a better writer of dialog than Lawrence Block? No, I didn't think so. And in his latest Matthew Scudder novel, "A Drop of the Hard Stuff", Block returns after a long absence with a new, dynamite Matt Scudder mystery.Lawrence Block appears to have experienced a "dry" period in his writing. Aside from a memoir called "Step-by-Step", a Keller short story for Kindle, and some reprints of his earlier Hard Case series, we Block-fans haven't heard much from him. And I, for one, have missed him. His book, "A Long Line of Dead Men", published in the early 1990's is, to me, the best detective/mystery book I've read. "Dead Men" was also in the Matt Scudder series.Matt Scudder is a recovering alcoholic, former policeman for the NYPD, and now a non-licensed private investigator. He has a lady-friend with whom he has an uncertain relationship, and through his under-the-table investigating business, makes a living. The theme throughout the Matt Scudder series is alcoholism. In some books it's more obvious than in others, and in this one, his latest, the plot revolves around AA, the Step program, and the detritus that fall out as people go through their day-at-a-time lives. Matt is asked to "look into" the murder of a man he knew as a child who had taken a different path as an adult than Matt. Scudder became a policeman, while Jack Ellery became a petty criminal. But both became alcoholics, and as the book opens in the early 1980's, they meet up at an AA meeting. (Actually, the book opens and ends with Scudder relating the story to his friend Mick Ballou in today's New York City).Ellery has been sober for about three years - Scudder at that point was reaching his one year's sober point - and he's fulfilling the Step program of seeking out people he has hurt in their alcoholic past and to make amends for the pain he's caused. After making a list and giving it to his sponsor, Ellery is found dead, shot twice in the head. His sponsor, Greg Stillman, hires Scudder to try to determine if any of the people on Ellery's list could have murdered him, after realising that the police are making Ellery's murder a low priority.Scudder investigates, reaching out to old friends and contacts still on the NYPD, all the while approaching his year mark of sobriety with some troubling personal issues.Block writes the Scudder books in the first person. His use of dialog - and the kind of dialog that REAL people use - make his books both mundane and interesting. There's not a whole lot of "action" in Block's books. Not many guns, not too many murders, just people who make decisions that affect the lives of others, some in a good way, some in a bad way. Lawrence Block is a masterful writer but his work does not appeal to all readers. However, if you've enjoyed Block's books in the past, you'll welcome his return to print with "A Drop of the Hard Stuff".