Let's Get Lost

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; Let's Get Lost, which first appeared in EQMM in 2000, is one of them.

Short stories have provided me with the opportunity for a glance back at Scudder's life before the first of the novels, when he was a working member of the NYPD. Let's Get Lost is set at a time when he had his detective's gold shield, and after he'd begun keeping company with Elaine Mardell, while still living in Syosset with his wife, Anita. It concerns a friendly poker game that doesn't stay friendly, and the artful cover-up of a cover-up. And Chet Baker's music, referenced in the title, sets the story's tone.

Let's Get Lost is included in The Night and the Music, my collection of all 11 Matthew Scudder short stories, available as an eBook or in handsome trade paperback form.