Looking for David — Lawrence Block

I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11 short works of fiction. Looking for David is the seventh of these; it first appeared in 1997 in Whydunit, a collection of stories by members of the Crime Writers of Canada, and ran the following year in EQMM.

The story grew out of a couple of threads -- my recollection of the role the statue of David played in my hometown of Buffalo, and a woman's observation on the metamorphosis of her husband from Greek god to Roman emperor. Ah, well. These things happen…

Looking for David is included in The Night and the Music, my collection of all 11 Matthew Scudder short stories, available for Kindle or in handsome trade paperback form.