An ancient brotherhood meets annually in the back room of a swank Manhattan restaurant, a fraternity created in secret to celebrate life by celebrating its dead. But the past three decades have not been kind to the Club of 31. Matthew Scudder—ex-cop and ex-boozer—has known death in all its guises, which is why he has been asked to investigate a baffling thirty-year run of suicides and suspiciously random accidents that has thinned the ranks of this very select group of gentlemen.But Scudder has mortality problems of his own, for his is a city that feeds mercilessly on the unsuspecting—even the powerful and those who serve them are easy prey. There are too many secrets here, too many places for a maddeningly patient serial killer to hide … and wait … and strike.