The central character of the series is Matt Scudder, a grimy, hard-drinking, excop private eye. Scudder's guilt at accidentally killing a child when he was trying to stop a robbery led to his quitting his job with the police force and leaving his family in the suburbs to live by himself on the edge of a very transient life, making his headquarters a neighborhood bar, Armstrong's. He is the opposite of the organization man, but he uses old contacts in the police force to obtain grudging information, meticulously paid for in cash. He is a professional, without an organization, without even a partner. He eschews bureaucracy, paying no taxes but tithing at various churches where he finds quiet and momentary sanctuary. His clients comprise various kinds of city characters: a prostitute, a pimp, a bar owner, a cop, a dead bag lady, a dead blackmailer, the father of...