Batman's Helpers — 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; Batman's Helpers is the fourth, first published in Robert J. Randisi's anthology, Justice for Hire, in 1990.

A friend, one Jim Thompson, had switched professions, moving from academia to private investigation. His experiences with street-level trademark enforcement gave rise to this story. Batman's Helpers 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.