Even the Wicked is part of the Matt Scudder series of hard-boiled detective fictions. One of the major concerns of that genre is a desire for justice that may not be achievable within the regular police and judicial system. The private detective is a supplement to the system, someone who can look around corners or behind the scenes as Matt does the case of Byron Leopold, asking cuibono or who profits from the shooting of Leopold. The police would be more likely to write off Leopold as an accidental victim of a drug transaction that ended violently.

Instead, T. J. is able to contact a drug dealer who witnessed the killing but who would not volunteer his information to the police. The private detective and his associates can discover information that official channels would not pick up.

Another source of information not even consulted by the overworked police...