Allreaders.com

Out on the Cutting Edge Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Out on the Cutting Edge


Unofficial private detective Matthew Scudder is hired to find a young woman who disappeared after coming to New York to pursue an acting career. Her parents have left messages on her answering machine that were not returned. Her father has come to New York and found she moved out of her furnished room. Oddly, she left her linens on the bed and her answering machine.
Click here to see the rest of this review...

Scudder discovers that Paula Hoeldtke didn't have her phone shut off until nearly a week after she had moved out of her room. She was well liked at work, and the producers of the few plays she was able to find parts in thought well of her. But there's little to explain why she disappeared.
In a subplot, Scudder befriends Eddie Dunphy, a former small-time hoodlum he meets in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Dunphy fears the fifth step in the AA program, a confession of the wrongs he has committed.
But Eddie turns up dead, apparently the victim of a form of asphyxiation while masturbating that often goes wrong. He appears to have partially hanged himself but lost control and passed out. Scudder tries to find out what it was that Eddie wanted to tell him. He seeks out Eddie's criminal boss, the butcher Mick Ballou. After spending a long evening talking to Ballou, the butcher asks how he can get in touch with Scudder. Matt offers him one of the cards he carries with Paula's picture on one side and his name and telephone number on the other. Surprisingly, Ballou shows an interest in the picture, then tries to cover it up. Scudder realizes that there's a connection between Paula's disappearance and Eddie's death, which he concludes was not an accident or suicide.
That connection, plus his gradually increasing suspicion of Eddie's landlady, with whom Scudder has begun an affair, pulls the seemingly unconnected strands together in a way that solves both murders.

The review of this Book prepared by David Gordon



Chapter Analysis of Out on the Cutting Edge

Click on a plot link to find similar books!

Plot & Themes

Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases 20%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 20%How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) 20% Tone of story    -   suspenseful (sophisticated fear) How difficult to spot villain?    -   Difficult, but some clues given Time/era of story:    -   1980's-1999 What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot?    -   40% Special suspect?    -   lover Misc. Murder Plotlets    -   Big focus on autopsies Kind of investigator    -   hard boiled/private eye Kid or adult book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Any non-mystery subplot?    -   feelings towards lover Crime Thriller    -   Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown)    -   Yes Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story?    -   Yes

Main Character

Gender    -   Male Profession/status:    -   private investigator Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Race    -   White/American

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   Northeast City?    -   Yes City:    -   New York

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   moderately detailed references to deaths Explicit sex in book?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   vague references    -   descript. of male nudity Unusual forms of death    -   asphyxiation Unusual form of death?    -   Yes Amount of dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like Out on the Cutting Edge

Lawrence Block Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
2 Ways to Search!
Or



Our Chief Librarian