Bøger af Lawrence Block

A brilliant, fast-paced thriller. Adapted for major Hollywood release, starring Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens and Ruth Wilson.

Cashed out from the NYPD, Doak Miller operates as a PI in small-town Florida, doing jobs for the police. Like posing as a hit man and wearing a wire to incriminate a woman who's looking to get rid of her husband. But when he looks into her deep blue eyes... Soon he's working with her, plotting a plan that could put millions in her bank account.

A gripping Matt Scudder novel from the author of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES.

A powerful Matt Scudder novel about love and loss.

A pulse-pounding Matt Scudder story.

A superb thriller from the writer of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES.

From the author of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES - set to be a major Hollywood film - comes the third novel in the Matt Scudder series.

From the author behind the upcoming Hollywood all-star film A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES - the second brilliant novel in the Matthew Scudder series

The 9th breakneck thriler in the Matt Scudder series, from a master of the genre.

Well, here's what the blurb for the audiobook says: "Carla is a beautiful girl. She was plucked from the obscurity of a Polish slum to be the wife of a wealthy man-a man who seemingly gives her everything a wife could want. Except the one thing that she needs most: the pleasure she burns for while he snores beside her, the passion that only a lover can give."But adultery seems impossible until, suddenly, it happens. When she seduces a filling-station attendant, ruining her clothes in the grease of a mechanic's floor, she starts to spin out of control. He is the first but not the last, as Carla learns that infidelity is no work at all."What it doesn't say, but I will, is that Carla was my first published novel. In the summer of 1958 I came home from a vacation in Mexico to a note from my agent: Did I know what a sex novel was? Could I write one? We both knew I could write a book, I'd sent him one then under consideration at Gold Medal, and now I sat down and wrote a portion and outline of a book to be set in my hometown of Buffalo, where I was spending what remained of the summer before going back to college in the fall.Midway Tower Books, a new publisher founded by Harry Shorten of Archie Comics, lapped up Carla, so to speak. I met Harry some months later, and all he wanted to talk about was the scene in the grease put at the gas station. I guess it really worked for him.One other thing perhaps worth noting. After my portion and outline had been okayed, I completed the book. Then my agent let me know that it was a little too short. Could I please write another chapter to be inserted anywhere in the book?That was a poser, as the plot-such as it was-didn't have a lot of leftover space in it. But I figured out what to write, and sent along a chapter with the notation that it could indeed be inserted anywhere in the book. My good buddy Don Westlake, who also labored some in the Shorten vineyard, thought this was a remarkable tour de force, but I'm not so sure. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?You can probably spot the chapter in question.As I said, Carla was my first published book, and that's reason enough for me to be pleased by its renewed availability. It may even be reason enough for you to read it. I'd hope, though, that it's not your very first exposure to my work.Still, if it is, there's a bright side. From here on, they get better. And I'm delighted we've been able to reproduce the original Midwood cover, with a painting by the great Paul Rader

There's no glass slipper in this fairy tale - just a damsel in distress, a bag of cash, and a whole lot of dead bodies.Reporter Ted Lindsay is trying to forget his ex-wife, and New York City's tough streets are just what the doctor ordered. They're also filled with alluring women, but only one catches Ted's eye. Cinderella Sims is not only beautiful, she's on the run and she needs Ted's help. She's got a bag full of cash and some very angry people staking out her apartment. Before long Ted's forgotten his heartbreak and is launched into the dark streets of crime with Cindy at his side.The author speaks: "Look, this wasn't my idea."Three or four years ago, Bill Schafer suggested that I might give some consideration to republishing a book of mine called $20 Lust, which had originally appeared under a pen name. I recalled the book he meant, but dimly; I had, after all, written it in 1960. But I didn't need to remember it all that vividly to know the answer to his suggestion."No, I told him."A little later I suggested he might want to publish a fancy edition of Mona, the first book under my own name; it had come out as a paperback original in 1961, and we could celebrate its fortieth anniversary with a nice limited edition hardcover."Bill was lukewarm to the notion, but had an alternative proposal; how about issuing a double volume, containing Mona and $20 Lust? Once again, I didn't have to do a lot of soul-searching to come up with a response."No, I told him."Time passed. Then Ed Gorman, the Sage of Cedar Rapids, used an ancient private eye novelette of mine in a pulp anthology. When it came out he sent me a copy, and, while I didn't read my novelette-I figured it was enough that I wrote the damned thing-I did read his introduction, which I found to be thoughtful and incisive and generous. I e-mailed him and told him so, and he e-mailed me back and thanked me, adding that my early work was probably better than I thought."'And, ' he added, 'I really think you ought to let Bill Schafer publish $20 Lust.'"I felt as though I'd been sucker-punched. Where the hell did that come from?"So I got in touch with Bill. 'I suppose I could at least read it, ' I said, 'except I can't, because I don't have a copy.' Three days later, a battered copy arrived in the mail. I looked at the first two pages, and I looked at the last two or three pages, and I heaved a sigh. Heaved it clear across the room, and would have heaved the book, too, but instead I hollered for my wife."'Bill Schafer wants to reprint this, ' I said."'Great, ' she said."'Not necessarily, ' I said, and explained the circumstances. 'I'd like you to read this, ' I said, 'or as much of it as you can without gagging, and then tell me it's utter crap and I'd surely destroy what little reputation I have if I consent to its republication.'"'Suppose I like it?'"'Not to worry, ' I said. 'I'll sign the commitment papers, and I'll make sure they take real good care of you.'"Well, she liked it. And Bill Schafer published it, and a lot of people liked it, and my agent sold it in France, where even more people liked it. Shows what I know. And it's now my pleasure to include it in the Classic Crime Library."Cinderella Sims was originally intended to be my second crime novel for Gold Medal, to follow Grifter's Game (aka Mona). At some point along the way I lost faith in it, and wrapped it up in a hurry, and sold it to Nightstand Books. Hope y'all enjo

In Roseburg, Oregon, a bartender walks off his job and heads east with no destination in mind. The Cascades are in his way, but he doesn't let that stop him.He keeps walking. And other people are moved to join him, and as they walk the group generates a sort of collective energy, and unexpected things happen. Miraculous things, you might say.Meanwhile, in Kansas, a perfectly respectable real estate professional loses his temper with a prostitute and surprises himself by killing her. He's even more surprised to discover that he enjoys it as he has never enjoyed anything before. It's even more enjoyable the second time. So he puts his work and his marriage and his whole life on hold and drives around the country, looking for more women to kill.RANDOM WALK is unlike anything else Lawrence Block has written. Originally published by Tor Books in 1988, it got spotty reviews and disappointing sales. A lot of people didn't know what to make of it. Here's the author's report of reactions over the years: "Sometimes at a book signing or other public appearance, someone'll come up to me and say, 'You know, I've enjoyed everything you've written, except there was one book that just didn't work for me at all, and I couldn't figure out what you had in mind when you wrote it.' And someone else will say, "I've read and enjoyed your books for years, but there's one book that hit me like a ton of stone tablets, and I've read it seventeen times and I get something new from it each time and I have to say it changed my life.' And I'll know right away that they're both talking about RANDOM WALK. I suppose for some people it's just another book, but for a sizable proportion of readers it's a definite outlier-they either love it like crazy or they don't get it at all."RANDOM WALK has been in and out of print in the thirty years since it first appeared, delighting some readers and confusing others. We're now very pleased to make it newly available, so that you may decide for yourself what you think of it.

Four decades ago, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block introduced the world to one of his most beloved and enduring creations: Bernie Rhodenbarr, the clever, nimble-fingered star of novels such as Burglars Can't Be Choosers, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, and The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons. Called "the Heifetz of the picklock" by the New York Times, Bernie has stolen not only antiques, stamp collections, and priceless works of art but also millions of readers' hearts. Now, for all those craving more adventures of their favorite bookseller-by-day and burglar-by-night, The Burglar in Short Order for the first time ever collects all of Bernie's short-form appearances in one complete volume. From the story in which a prototype of Bernie first appeared ("A Bad Night For Burglars") to his appearances in Playboy and (maybe? It's kinda complicated) Cosmopolitan...from an essay discussing Bernie's misadventures in Hollywood (how in the world did Whoopi Goldberg ever get cast?) to a piece commissioned by a European publisher for a tourist guide to New York...you'll find every published story, article, and standalone excerpt Bernie has ever appeared in-plus two new, unpublished pieces: an introduction discussing the character's colorful origins and an afterword in which the author, contemplating retirement, comes face to face with his own creation. In all of mystery fiction, there has never been a character like Bernie-and in this, his dozenth book, he demonstrates all the charm and wit and kleptophilic ingenuity that has made two generations of readers welcome their favorite burglar into their homes.

Here's one reviewer's take: "Originally marketed as "occult horror", Ariel is neither. It's a story of the madness that lies just under the surface, and what it takes to bring it out; the need to give evil a face and a name. Who better to scapegoat for unexplainable tragedies than the one who is Different? Ariel is adopted, and looks slightly unusual. Her unstable mother never fails to assume the worst, almost deliberately misreading the girl's ordinary teenage perceptiveness and need for privacy. By the book's end, almost everyone believes that Ariel is a monster -- including Ariel herself."Great characterizations, wonderful descriptions -- I want to live in Ariel's house. I could wish for a sequel, or just for more books like it."And here's LB's: "A publisher provided the premise of Ariel-an adoption that went awry. I was in Charleston when I began the book, and chose that extraordinary city as its setting. I don't know to what extent the book works-I should note that not every reader agreed with the one quoted above-but I greatly enjoyed the interplay of Ariel and her friend Erskine, and on certain nights I can still hear her flute off in the distance."THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

A thriller loaded with international intrigue from mystery master Lawrence Block.Struggling folksinger Ellen Cameron can't believe her luck. Not only is the State Department sponsoring her trip to West Berlin, but her agent has arranged for her to tour Ireland. It's just the break she needs. And better yet, she's meeting the friendliest and most interesting people on her trip, from a kind priest on the plane to a handsome American studying abroad. But things - and people - aren't always what they seem, and her European adventure could turn out to be the type of international affair she never imagined.LB says: "This book was originally published by Lancer Books under the pen name Anne Campbell Clarke, a pseudonym I never used before or since. I'd been engaged to write a romantic espionage novel in the tradition of Helen MacInnes, and chose Ireland as a setting, being familiar with the countryside and with the folk music. I had a good time writing it, but of course that's no guarantee you'll have a good time reading it. But I certainly hope you do." THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

Sheldon Lord began his career with CARLA (#5 in the Collection of Classic Erotica), published by Harry Shorten's Midwood Books in 1958. Just about a year later he wrote CAMPUS TRAMP (CCL #7) for William Hamling's Nightstand Books, for whom he'd morphed into Andrew Shaw. And young Mr. Lord's first book for yet a third publisher, Beacon, was APRIL NORTH (CCL #4).Each publisher wanted more from the guy. Beacon's request for a second book was remarkably specific. They had a title in mind-COMMUNITY OF WOMEN-and a theme. Their notion was that no end of interesting and attractive couples lived in the suburbs, and five mornings a week virtually all of the husbands rode into Manhattan on the train, while their wives remained to do presumably wifely things at home. So during daytime hours, Monday through Friday, all of these wives constituted a...Community of Women. Which would make it a hotbed of, um, hot stuff.Duh.Well, it was an okay premise. I remember the occasion when it was delivered to me. I was in Buffalo, my ancestral home, on a brief visit. My agent called and recounted what Beacon had asked for. (That agent believed in keeping writers and publishers far apart. I did meet Harry Shorten once, at Harry's insistence, but never had any direct contact with anyone at Nightstand or Beacon.) "They need this as soon as possible," he added.I fell for this, of course. I always did. About a year earlier I was living on West 69th Street when the same agent told me that Monarch Books had an unfinished novel, the first chapters and outline of which had been written by William Ard, who'd died at what even then seemed like an impossibly young age. (Looking back, I can't avoid the thought that the one thing poor Bill Ard got out of his early death was that he didn't have to finish that goddam book.) So my job was to complete the book, which would put a few dollars in my pocket and a few more in the near-empty purse of Ard's widow."And they need it right away..."Well, the hell they did. But I bought the notion, moved into a hotel on the corner of Broadway and 69th. I went there every morning and went home every night, and i finished that awful book. Are might have made something of it, he was a pretty good writer, but all I can say for myself is the book got written, and published. And it's not as though Monarch was holding the press for it. They published it whenever they got around to it.Same with Beacon and COMMUNITY OF WOMEN. Nobody there was holding his breath. But I believed what I was told, so I wrote it right there, sitting at a card table in the front room of my mother's house on Starin Avenue. I didn't know much about life in the suburbs, or about people who went to an office every morning and came home every night, but it wasn't hard to come up with characters and find ways for them to interact with one another. If I recall correctly (and how often does that happen?) it took me four or five days.I guess Beacon liked it well enough. They wanted more, and published several more of Sheldon Lord's efforts. And then, when they wanted still more and I had neither time nor inclination to write them, my agent suggested we find writers to ghost the books under Sheldon Lord's name; I'd receive a fee off the top for my involvement, with the balance to go to the actual writers. Consequently there are more than a few Sheldon Lord titles-specifically most of the ones for Beacon-which I neither wrote nor read.And so I've spared you a summary of COMMUNITY OF WOMEN, and gotten off the hook instead by taking this little trip down Memory Lane. It is, after all, one of my favorite thoroughfares, not without potholes and sharp turns, and sometimes confused with the Boulevard of Broken Dreams..

There's no glass slipper in this fairy tale - just a damsel in distress, a bag of cash, and a whole lot of dead bodies. Reporter Ted Lindsay is trying to forget his ex-wife, and New York City's tough streets are just what the doctor ordered. They're also filled with alluring women, but only one catches Ted's eye. Cinderella Sims is not only beautiful, she's on the run and she needs Ted's help. She's got a bag full of cash and some very angry people staking out her apartment. Before long Ted's forgotten his heartbreak and is launched into the dark streets of crime with Cindy at his side. The author speaks: "Look, this wasn't my idea. "Three or four years ago, Bill Schafer suggested that I might give some consideration to republishing a book of mine called $20 Lust, which had originally appeared under a pen name. I recalled the book he meant, but dimly; I had, after all, written it in 1960. But I didn't need to remember it all that vividly to know the answer to his suggestion. "No, I told him. "A little later I suggested he might want to publish a fancy edition of Mona, the first book under my own name; it had come out as a paperback original in 1961, and we could celebrate its fortieth anniversary with a nice limited edition hardcover. "Bill was lukewarm to the notion, but had an alternative proposal; how about issuing a double volume, containing Mona and $20 Lust? Once again, I didn't have to do a lot of soul-searching to come up with a response. "No, I told him. "Time passed. Then Ed Gorman, the Sage of Cedar Rapids, used an ancient private eye novelette of mine in a pulp anthology. When it came out he sent me a copy, and, while I didn't read my novelette-I figured it was enough that I wrote the damned thing-I did read his introduction, which I found to be thoughtful and incisive and generous. I e-mailed him and told him so, and he e-mailed me back and thanked me, adding that my early work was probably better than I thought. "'And, ' he added, 'I really think you ought to let Bill Schafer publish $20 Lust.' "I felt as though I'd been sucker-punched. Where the hell did that come from? "So I got in touch with Bill. 'I suppose I could at least read it, ' I said, 'except I can't, because I don't have a copy.' Three days later, a battered copy arrived in the mail. I looked at the first two pages, and I looked at the last two or three pages, and I heaved a sigh. Heaved it clear across the room, and would have heaved the book, too, but instead I hollered for my wife. "'Bill Schafer wants to reprint this, ' I said. "'Great, ' she said. "'Not necessarily, ' I said, and explained the circumstances. 'I'd like you to read this, ' I said, 'or as much of it as you can without gagging, and then tell me it's utter crap and I'd surely destroy what little reputation I have if I consent to its republication.' "'Suppose I like it?' "'Not to worry, ' I said. 'I'll sign the commitment papers, and I'll make sure they take real good care of you.' "Well, she liked it. And Bill Schafer published it, and a lot of people liked it, and my agent sold it in France, where even more people liked it. Shows what I know. And it's now my pleasure to include it in the Classic Crime Library. "Cinderella Sims was originally intended to be my second crime novel for Gold Medal, to follow Grifter's Game (aka Mona). At some point along the way I lost faith in it, and wrapped it up in a hurry, and sold it to Nightstand Books. Hope y'all enjoy it!" THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

"WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL is like having a pocket-sized mentor you can consult any time. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy."-Alex Kourvo, Writing Slices Lawrence Block is almost as well known for his instructional books for writers and his 14 years as a monthly contributor to "Writers Digest," as he is as a bestselling author and MWA Grand Master. WRITING THE NOVEL, his first book for writers, has remained continuously in print since its original appearance in 1978. Recently revised and expanded, each chapter has been updated, and Block has included essential information on digital publishing, self-publishing, how to get published, and the perils-and opportunities-awaiting debut and veteran novelists alike. Unlike so many advice-givers, Block doesn't tell you what book to write, or the one and only way to write it. He holds that every novel is different, and so is every novelist; his aim is to give you the tools to enable you to find your own way. You will find chapters on: deciding which novel to write developing plot ideas and charactersoutlining rewriting getting publishedself-publishing and so much more! In this revised edition, WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL, Lawrence Block retains all his original text while creating a writer's guide that's fifty percent longer than previous editions. As he would be the first to tell you, you don't need this book-or any other-to succeed as a novelist. Still, thousands of writers have found it most helpful-and who couldn't use a little extra help?

Young David Forrester is a sex-obsessed freshman student at Upper Manhattan's Columbia University, although the institution remains unnamed in the book. An upperclassman shepherds him through the loss his virginity, then steers him into a club of libertines.And, you know, one thing leads to another.But as far as I'm concerned, the most striking aspect of COLLEGE FOR SINNERS is that it seems to have been the occasion for some unwitting plagiarism on my part.The dramatist Moliere has a character who's astonished, and not half-chuffed, to discover that all his life he's been speaking prose. Well, I'm every bit as surprised by this revelation, if less delighted with myself for it.Here's the story: Not too long ago some idle surfing, possibly prompted by a Talkwalker alert, led me to a site on which a blogger took me to task for having plagiarized CAMPUS LOVE CLUB, by David Challon. The novel he names was published in 1959, a year before COLLEGE FOR SINNERS, and evidently told much the same story; it too was set at Columbia, called Metropolitan University in Challon's novel. And there's a horny young innocent like our David Forrester, and a suave upperclassman, and a club of undergraduate perverts in training. And, duh, one thing leads to another.Now in the ordinary course of things I'd have written this off as coincidence, and a fairly commonplace coincidence at that. But here's the thing-I happen to know that I actually did read CAMPUS LOVE CLUB. I remember the byline, David Challon, and remember having learned that the actual author was the prolific and talented Robert Silverberg. I recall reading it, and I recall thinking that it was good of its kind, and then from that day to this I don't believe I ever gave it another thought.The book I read was published by Bee-Line Books, and the fifty cents I paid for it was more than its author ever saw from the bastards; a bit of surfing shows that Bee-Line failed to pay Silverberg for it, and so a couple of years later he sold it to Midwood, where it was published under another of his pen names, Loren Beauchamp. In the interim COLLEGE FOR SINNERS was published by Nightstand Books under my pen name, Andrew Shaw.If I thought I was plagiarizing anyone, it was neither Mr. Challon nor Mr. Silverberg. (Mr. Beauchamp was not yet in the picture.) My conscious model for COLLEGE FOR SINNERS, to the limited extent that I had one, was an earlier book called HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB. . .by a chap who was calling himself Andrew Shaw.Indeed. Decades after all of this happened, Bob Silverberg and I finally met and became friends, and in fact presented a joint program at a Bay Area library in 2011, talking about our early days of laboring in the Midwood/Nightstand vineyard. (And a wonderful evening it turned out to be. Go to YouTube, search for "Lawrence Block Robert Silverberg Lust Lords"-and enjoy.)Did I steal anything from Bob's book? Not consciously, certainly. It was natural enough for me to pick Columbia as a setting, as I'd spent a semester taking courses at that institution's School of General Studies during my year at Scott Meredith. Beyond that, I never deliberately followed any plotline, my own or another's, when I was writing one of these books. I wrote a chapter, and whatever happened in it led me to the next chapter, and so on. Which, now that I think about it, is pretty much the way I've led my life.Is that enough about COLLEGE FOR SINNERS? I think it had better be. . .

"Ed London is the kind of private investigator you call to clean up the mess when your mistress turns up dead. But after he dumps a body in Central Park, it appears this case is still alive and kicking. Seems that the dead girl was in possession of something special that some very shady characters want back. Now Ed, along with his actress friend Maddy, will have to crack the case before he ends up dead himself. But there's more than a murder here; there's missing jewels, Israeli intelligence, Nazi spies, and a host of double-dealing, backstabbing thieves."Coward's Kiss started life as a tie-in novel for Belmont Books, linked to the TV series Markham, starring Ray Milland. When a very young Lawrence Block turned in the book, his agent sent it instead to Knox Burger at Gold Medal, who shared the agent's enthusiasm. Block rewrote the book, changing Roy to Ed and Markham to London, and Gold Medal published the book with the unfortunate title of Death Pulls a Doublecross.After fulfilling his assignment by writing another book for Belmont (You Could Call It Murder, Classic Crime Library #12) Block tried to write a second Ed London novel, but somehow never managed it. He did write three magazine novelettes with London, and you can find them in One Night Stands and Lost Weekends, a collection of his earliest pulp work.The legendary Anthony Boucher gave the book a nice review in the New York Times Book Review, and if Lawrence Block had the sense to hang on to things, we'd reproduce it here. But he doesn't, so you'll have to take our word for it. THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

Why don't I let these good people tell you about DEAD GIRL BLUES?"Dark and cold as the far side of the moon, but with prose as lean as a starving model, DEAD GIRL BLUES is like the dead body you can't help but look at. I couldn't quit reading, and damn sure didn't want to. A grim masterpiece of storytelling." Joe R. Lansdale"The book is so dark it veers into the ultraviolet. But it's also fearless, and it does what art is supposed to do. If you're willing to be horrified by what you see and by the lens through which you see it, maybe Lawrence Block will sing you those DEAD GIRL BLUES. Warren Moore"DEAD GIRL BLUES still claws at me. It's a time-release dread capsule that locked me in someone's shoes and made my gut twist all along the ride. Maybe his best book, and that's saying something." Tom Straw"It's been a long time since I read anything this hard-hitting and thought-provoking. DEAD GIRL BLUES is daringly original, both shocking and brilliantly told." David Morrell"DEAD GIRL BLUES will surely offend some readers, but I loved it. It's wonderfully written and the voice is pitch-perfect, comfortable and unsettling at the same time. If you are into dark noir, this book is for you." Lee Goldberg"This is an astonishing novel, the most profound examination and evisceration of identity which I have encountered in decades. A stunning and terminally unsettling work." Barry N. Malzberg"It's a meditation on dark impulses and trying to live with them that is going to haunt me for a good long while. Some people have already noted that this is one of Block's best books, and you can add me to that list." Kemper's Book Blog"When the novel turned out to be a weirdly quiet, weirdly gentle story of a man who may have gotten away with worse than murder, and how he lives with it-well, it surprised me. I didn't know how compelling such a contemplation would be, and how tense and thrilling. It's that throttling sense of not knowing that makes this bizarre book so fantastic. Come for the violence. Stay for the if." Kevin Quigley"Lawrence Block's first published novel hit the shelves in 1958. That means that the author has published books in eight different decades. Let that marinate in your mind for a minute. Even more remarkable: the quality of his work hasn't slipped a bit. He's still got the magic." Tom Simon @ Paperback Warrior"I believe it was Ed Gorman who said that Block writes the best sentences in the business. That's still true. This is a book that may not be for everybody, since it's a little squirm-inducing in places, but it's also heartwarming at times, in its own oddball way. I really liked it." James Reasoner @ Rough Edges"It's a horrible book, insofar as it (in this reader at least) inspired horror. And it's an absolute triumph. Block elevates DEAD GIRL BLUES into something that's by turns chilling, warming, disturbingly erotic. It's a book about the monster in all of us, and what happens when that monster gets loose. And it's a book, I think, about learning to live with the monster and the consequences of our actions. One of the best books he's ever written." Derek Farrel @ Do Some Damage"One of the most powerful and scary books Block has written. The scary part is the way the sociopath who commits the horrible crime proceeds to acquire the veneer of socialization that allows him to become one of the pillars of his community. Oh, and his portrayal rings true. I have two sociopathic relatives, and the portrayal resonates very closely to how they behave." Deb Wunder @ Goodreads"I would find myself at times actually rooting for this guy, but then I'd remember just exactly what he is and get brought back down to earth. It's such an incredible achievement! Dead Girl Blues is likely to be the most interesting book I read in 2020." Brandon Sears @ Every Good Read

The do-it-yourself edition of bestselling author Lawrence Block's groundbreaking seminar for writers! In the 1980s, bestselling author Lawrence Block developed an innovative, interactional seminar that adapted elements of the human potential movement, specifically for writers. For several years, he and his wife, Lynne, traveled the country conducting workshops that focused on the inner game of writing and were designed to enable participants to get out of their own way and put their best work on paper. Written to ensure the course material would be made available to the largest audience possible-and at a lower price-Block self-published this book in 1986, in a print run of 5,000 copies, which sold out in short order. A few years later, he stopped offering the seminar, having tired of the guru trip and preferring to concentrate on his own writing. For years afterward, WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE was nearly impossible to obtain.When ebooks became popular, Block arranged for HarperCollins to publish WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE in its digital format. Still, he continued to hear from fans mourning the print edition.This is, after all, the sort of text one wants to be able to page through, making the printed book more user-friendly. In the fall of 2013, an assistant found the last box of the 1986 edition in a storage cupboard; Block offered them in a newsletter, and all 25 copies sold out within three hours.This is the original text, with a new foreword bringing it up to date. With the book, as with the seminar, it doesn't matter at all where you are in your writing career or what kind of writing you do. That's all beside the point. WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE is about making the best out of who you are and where you are.

BROADWAY CAN BE MURDER started out to be a novel based on Johnny Midnight, a TV series which everyone has long since forgotten.Except, of course, that nothing manages to be forgotten in the Internet Age. I, whose job it was to knock out 50,000 words of Johnny Midnightish prose and dialogue, had forgotten when it ran and who was in it, but Google took no time at all to remind me that the title role was played by Edmund O'Brien, and that the series ran during the first nine months of 1960. And if you want to know more about it, well, Google and Wikipedia are there to enlighten you.I was in New York, newly married, living at 110 West 69th Street. I was writing short stories for crime fiction magazines, erotic novels for Midwood and Nightstand, and fielding assignments that my agent steered in my direction. Two of these were from paperback publishers who had acquired the book rights to a TV drama and wanted to hire someone to write a book.First up for me was a show called Markham, which starred Ray Milland. Belmont was to be the publisher, and I had to write the damn book twice. My first effort turned out to be too good to waste its fragrance on Belmont's desert air, and my agent had me change the title and the names of the characters and sold the thing to Gold Medal. So I had to write it again, and I did, and they liked it okay and published it.Next up was Beacon Books, with "Johnny Midnight" as both the book's inspiration and its title. I wrote it, but by the time Beacon was preparing it for publication, the series had been canceled. The publisher saw no reason to pay a licensing fee for a moribund show, and accordingly changed names: Johnny Midnight became Johnny Lane, and his trusty servant morphed from Uki to Ito. And Lawrence Block became Ben Christopher for the occasion. I don't know what kept me from using my own name, the book was crime fiction rather than the erotica that seemed to call for a pen name, but I do remember that my great friend Donald E. Westlake had recently done some sort of tie-in novel and hung the name Ben Christopher on it, telling me it would be his pen name for tie-ins he was anxious to forget. I horned in on the name, and if Don found this irksome he kept it to himself.Someone at Beacon picked the title. STRANGE EMBRACE. Well, there's a lesbian element in the book, and I guess they wanted to play it up, and "strange" was a useful code word toward that end. II let the title stand when Subterranean published the book in a double volume with 69 BARROW STREET, and kept it when I reissues it in the Classic Crime Library.Now, in 2021, Theo Holland is voicing an audio edition of the book-and I think it's high time it have an appropriate title, one that sounds like the hard-edged crime novel it is instead of the bit of erotica Beacon wanted to make it resemble. It's a murder mystery with a Broadway theater setting, so why not call it BROADWAY CAN BE MURDER? We can still use the original cover art, if my production goddess can put her Photoshop skills to work on the title...Done and done.Ray Milland, I should add, had no better luck than Edmund O'Brien; his show Markham was canceled after a single season. Belmont evidently didn't get the news in time to act on it, and they dutifully published the book as Markham: The Case of the Pornographic Photos. When I okayed a reissue years later by another publisher I changed the title to YOU COULD CALL IT MURDER-and it's available now with that title, in paperback or ebook, as Classic Crime Library #12. (And the book it was written to replace, which Gold Medal called Death Pulls a Doublecross, is now #13 in the Classic Crime Library with my original title restored: COWARD'S KISS.)And here's CCL #19, BROADWAY CAN BE MURDER. Enjoy it!

Ever since The Burglar on the Prowl climbed the bestseller lists in 2004, fans have been clamoring for a new book featuring the lighthearted and lightfingered Bernie Rhodenbarr. Now everybody's favorite burglar returns in an eleventh adventure that finds him and his lesbian sidekick Carolyn Kaiser breaking into houses, apartments, and even a museum, in a madcap adventure replete with American Colonial silver, an F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript, a priceless portrait, and a remarkable array of buttons. And, wouldn't you know it, there's a dead body, all stretched out on a Trent Barling carpet...

Ever since The Burglar on the Prowl climbed the bestseller lists in 2004, fans have been clamoring for a new book featuring the lighthearted and lightfingered Bernie Rhodenbarr. Now everybody's favorite burglar returns in an eleventh adventure that finds him and his lesbian sidekick Carolyn Kaiser breaking into houses, apartments, and even a museum, in a madcap adventure replete with American Colonial silver, an F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript, a priceless portrait, and a remarkable array of buttons. And, wouldn't you know it, there's a dead body, all stretched out on a Trent Barling carpet...

"A missing person case brings private eye Roy Markham to the remote winter-bound college town of Cliff's End, New Hampshire. But what began as a routine investigation quickly becomes dark and dangerous. Six pornographic photos and a tidy little blackmail scheme result in a brutal and baffling murder, and no one is safe - especially Markham himself."That's the product description for Blackstone Audio's excellent rendition of You Could Call It Murder, expertly voiced by Peter Berkrot, and we could leave it at that-but there's an interesting backstory to the book, and the Classic Crime Library seems a good place to share it with you.In 1961, Lawrence Block was living in New York and earning a living writing Midcentury Erotica and crime fiction. He'd just sold his first book under his own name, Grifter's Game, to Gold Medal Books. (They insisted on calling it Mona, but the original title's been restored by Hard Case Crime.) His agent got him an assignment to write a tie-in paperback novel for Belmont Books, linked to the TV series Markham, starring Ray Milland.The book turned out well, and the young writer's agent felt it was too good to be a Belmont tie-in. Knox Burger agreed, and Block changed the name of the hero from Roy Markham to Ed London, and Gold Medal published the book as Death Pulls a Doublecross. (Another unfortunate title; you'll find the book in the Classic Crime Library with the author's original title, Coward's Kiss.)But that left Block owing Belmont a book. You Could Call It Murder is what he wrote for them, and it turned out fairly nicely as well, but his agent sent it to Belmont all the same, where they published it as Markham: The Case of the Pornographic Photos. (By the time it came out-surprise surprise-the TV series was canceled.)Is everything clear? THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

Lawrence Block's new collection assembles seven works of fiction written over a period of sixty years. "Hard Sell," a story ghost-written under Craig Rice's name, appeared in the first issue of Ed McBain's Mystery Magazinein 1960, and features Rice's hard-drinking yet clear-thinking lawyer, John J.Malone. "Dead to the World," which appeared under a one-shot pen name in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, has been lost for years, and the story of how it was lost and found is as interesting as the story itself.The same is true of "Whatever It Takes," written over a quarter of a century ago and never submitted anywhere, because the author filed it away and forgot about it; he came upon it, dusted it off, and sent it to AHMM where it was published."I Know How to Pick 'Em" was written for Dangerous Women, the George R. R.Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology, and a holdback clause in the contract kept it out of LB's previous collections. "Autumn at the Automat" was also written for an anthology, LB's own In Sunlight or in Shadow, and won an Edgar Allan Poe award as Best Story of the Year."Gym Rat" has never appeared in print; it was ePublished as part of a Center for Fiction project. While readers have suggested the protagonist might return for further appearances, LB is doubtful. Still, he's been mistaken before."Resume Speed," the title novella, was published in hardcover (by the stellar Subterranean Press) and as a Kindle Single (by the author). Subterranean's edition is out of print and hard to come by, and the story now appears in paperback for the first time. While it was written only a couple of years ago, it has its roots in a story the author overheard perhaps 40 years ago.All of the circumstances of its origin, and a good deal more about each of these stories, may be found in LB's foreword. But, if you don't care, you can just skip it and go straight to the stories themselves.

"Jimmie John Hall wasn't anything until he was a killer, and Betty Dienhardt wasn't anything until she met Jimmie John Hall. When they get together, sparks fly and bullets follow. The first to go are Betty's parents, but Betty isn't bothered. She only wants to be with her man - the first person to ever make her feel special."They set off on a cross-country spree, killing for gas money and food, killing to swap their car for one the police aren't looking for. As the dragnet draws tighter, they only grow closer, riding a road that leads to death because death has surrounded them all the time."That's the copy on Dreamscape Audio's excellent audiobook, expertly narrated by Alan Sklar, and I'd be hard put to improve on it. It's worth noting, though, that the novel derives from and was inspired by the real-life (and real death) rampage of Charles Starkweather and Caryl Fugate in 1950s Nebraska; the novel itself is set fifteen years later, and does not attempt a literal reconstruction of the original case.It's a powerful work of fiction, a penetrating look at two disturbed and disturbing individuals, and a breakneck tear across the American Midwest. Like Such Men Are Dangerous and The Triumph of Evil, it was originally published under LB's Paul Kavanagh pen name, but as soon as he could he resides all three books under his own name, and is pleased to make them available now in the Classic Crime Library. THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

"This goes through you like a dose of salts and stings like iodine."So said Virginia Kirkus Reviews of Such Men Are Dangerous when it first appeared almost fifty years ago, and since then this edge-of-the-chair novel hasn't lost a step. It's the story of Paul Kavanagh, a burnt-out ex-Green Beret who copes with what we've since learned to call PTSD by retiring to a dime-sized islet in the Florida Keys. There he lives a determinedly simple life, his human contact limited to a weekly visit to a storekeeper on a nearby island.Then George Dattner turns up with a plan. A CIA op, he has inside knowledge of a scheduled shipment of military goods from an army base in South Dakota. It's really nasty stuff-atomic grenades, lethal gas, tactical weaponry that could be a game-changer for a border war or insurgency. And he's got a buyer lined up. All he needs is a partner, because the way he's got it figured, hijacking the shipment is a job that the right two men can pull off.Kavanagh signs on.The operation is brilliantly planned and executed, but not without a few surprises along the way. But the greatest surprise, and a denouement that's as shocking now as it was half a century ago, will hit you as hard as it hit readers half a century ago.THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

"If you're not part of the solution, you must be part of the problem."You heard that a lot in the early 1970s, when the country seemed to be teetering on the brink of revolutionary upheaval. Miles Dorn, living quietly in retirement in the U.S., had come a long way from his roots in Central Europe, leaving his past as an assassin and agent provocateur behind him. But as soon as he walks into his house and smells the smoke from a Turkish cigarette, he knows nobody can walk away from the past. It's always there, and it can reach out at any moment and get hold of you.He's recruited for a series of assassinations designed to render his adopted country vulnerable to a political coup. Instead of the elaborate web that's the staple of conspiracy theorists, he's one man, working alone.He's also a man falling in love, and with a woman a generation too young for him. "We're the same age, Miles," she insists. "I've known you for exactly as long as you've known me."Of course he likes the sound of that, but he knows better than to believe it. Just as he knows better than to believe that their love affair-or anything else in his life-has a real chance of working out. But what can he do? Is Dorn part of the solution-or a principal part of the problem?The Triumph of Evil is a powerful evocation of perilous time in America's recent past. It's a thriller on a human scale, and you'll be stunned by its plausibility and gripped by its suspense. THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.