The Scarf

The Scarf by Robert Bloch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Up and coming writer Dan Morley has a dark past he'd rather keep hidden. Can he keep the past buried or will his career tank when people discover his dark secrets involving... THE SCARF!


There really isn't a lot to say. Dan Morely seduces women, uses them to further his goals, and murders them using the scarf. It's not that suspenseful after the first murder.

The Scarf is a pretty slim read at 160 pages and doesn't leave a lot of room to maneuver. Once I got past the halfway mark, I was pretty sure Morely wouldn't have any kind of a relationship with a woman without trying to do away with her at some point.


I'd say my favorite part was Morely's origin, his high school love affair with a much older teacher, culminating in the two of them nearly being killed, setting the standard for Morely's relationships with women throughout the rest of his life.

Three stars is lower than I originally intended on rating it but the ending SUCKED! It was out of nowhere and kind of invalidated the rest of the book. The whole book was dependent on Morely's affair with his teacher and her being killed in a gas leak while his hands were bound with the scarf, then she turns up alive? What kind of bullshit is that?

The Scarf is worth a couple hours of reading time, but it's not my favorite Bloch. It's good but falls apart at the end. If you have a choice between and Shooting Star/Spiderweb, the Bloch book Hard Case put out, go for the Hard Case. This one is barely a 3.




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