A seasoned veteran of the world’s favourite private detective series will look at the title of this book and think that Mr Block has outdone himself. A quintessential Scudderism, the very name of the tome encapsulates everything the series has stood for, and everything the books have talked abou...
After recently watching A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (my favorite movie so far this year), I've been itching to read a Lawrence Block novel. I chose KILLING CASTRO because I've also been on a Hard Case Crime kick lately, and it's the kind of book you have to either get your hands on quickly or ri...
A book about the mystery of a dead hooker becomes a book about Matt Scudder taking one day at a time, trying to save himself from alcohol. The prose was dry and matter-of-fact; the words of a police report detailing his movements and contacts. And yet the way they were arranged, their anti-drama ...
This book inspired one of the greatest head-scratchers in the history of film adaptations when Hollywood decided that Burglar would feature Whoopi Goldberg playing a white male and Bobcat Goldthwait would be perfect as a lesbian dog groomer.I got to meet Lawrence Block while he was on a book tour...
Readers wanting to follow the exploits of a bad-boy lead character usually have to choose between hit men, fixers, or other hard cases who generally seek to solve problems through the application of force. Back in the late 1970s, however, Lawrence Block introduced a less-bad bad boy: gentleman bu...
It’s an odd book, this. Set in the 1960’s, this madcap caper has a man called Evan Tanner chasing around Europe looking for gold that has been hidden away in Turkey for some 40 years. As a result of an injury he sustained in the Korean War, Evan doesn’t sleep – ever. This gives him a number of ad...
Alex Penn has had better starts to the day. After waking up following a night of heavy drinking he can, at first, barely face the day. Once he’s persuaded his eyes to open it gets worse – his clothes are covered in blood and what’s that on the floor? It’s a naked and very dead woman. To rub salt ...
It does not take long for the fan of American crime fiction (and of THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL in general) to find themselves compelled and intrigued by this by now classic release, first published in 1956. A long time ago, in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, back before technology once more...
This particular story was a little hard to follow, but funny and informative as usual. And talking about "as usual", just about every Bernie Rhodenbarr book I've read so far can be summed up in a few sentences...Bernie: *burgles some unlucky bastard*Some unlucky bastard: *turns up dead*Ray: Darn ...
Τρίτο βιβλίο της σειράς με ήρωα τον συμπαθητικό διαρρήκτη Μπέρνι Ρόντενμπαρ και τρίτο που διαβάζω. Μου φάνηκε ελάχιστα κατώτερο σε σχέση με τα δυο πρώτα βιβλία της σειράς, αλλά και πάλι μου άρεσε πολύ. Ο Μπέρνι έχει αγοράσει ένα παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο σε ένα κεντρικό σημείο της Νέας Υόρκης και πουλάε...
This was a paperback mystery when it was first published in 1976. The edition that I am reading is from 1992, is the first hardcover edition, and has an Introduction by Stephen King. In 1991 King published Needful Things. According the Wikipedia, “It is the first novel King wrote after his rehab...
After reading a later book in the series ("The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart"), I decided to read an earlier one. In this case, the low-hanging fruit proved to be one that also set up certain key facts in the life and "career" of the protagonist.Like the previous sample, I found it to be a f...
A few years ago it became somewhat fashionable for like a month or two to talk about how Stephen King deserved to win literary awards. Because I'm lazy I'm not going to look it up, but I think he was even given some kind of lifetime achievement award from the folks who provide us with the Nation...
With the fourth, and final, Chip Harrison novel, The Topless Tulip Caper (1975) Lawrence Block pulls off a very entertaining Nero Wolfe pastiche. Chip Harrison makes a very satisfactory Archie Goodwin and Block provides a satisfactory Nero Wolfe in Leo Haig.In an interview with Ethan Iverson on D...
The Bernie Rhodenbarr Mysteries, as readers of my reviews should know by now, is my my go-to series when I'm not in the mood to be disappointed. Sometimes it's right after I've read something truly awful -which, thank goodness, doesn't happen often. Other times, it's exactly the opposite; I've ju...
Another Lawrence Block winner (are there any losers?) Called to get rid of a body by his friend Jack Enright (who happens to be married to his sister,) P.I. Ed London retrieves the body from Jack’s love-nest and dumps it in the park. Soon he begins a search for a briefcase loaded ostensibly with...
I couldn't help liking this book. It's fast-paced, with wildly implausible action scenes and tongue-in-cheek humor. (I particularly liked the part where one of the commandos would tape a knife to his leg and then sneak up behind someone, remove the knife quiety, and kill him. Really? How does...
Hookers...blackmail...murder...police corruption...S&M fetishes...politics...and lots...and lots...and LOTS of Welcome to another scintillating episode in the 80-proof life of New York's favorite unlicensed private detective.Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series is about as close to a sure thi...
This, the sixteenth Matthew Scudder novel, opens as a psychologist comes to a Virginia prison to visit a man condemned to death for the brutal murders of three young boys. Although the evidence against him was overwhelming, the prisoner continues to protest his innocence. The psychologist claims ...
In essence, this is a simple, relentless revenge tale. Dave and Jill are young newlyweds on their honeymoon, bright-eyed and eager for the future, until they witness a murder and become victims themselves—the bad guys beat Dave senseless, and, almost on a whim, brutally rape Jill. Thankfully, Blo...
Basketball is my all time favorite sport and when i found out that there was a murder anthology dedicated to the game featuring the editing talents of Otto Penzler, i knew i had to get it. Fortunately my girlfriend bought me a copy and i enjoyed it, for the most part. not sure how to tackle revie...
A large part of the appeal of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series has always (or at least from about the third novel onwards) been to follow the fate of its protagonist, his trying to survive without a regular job, his trying to come to terms with his past as a police officer, and chiefly his...
Lawrence Block knows what he's doing and he does it well. This is a worthy addition to the Matthew Scudder series. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic, ex-cop who lives in a low-rent residential hotel and earns his living as an unlicensed private investigator. A Ticket to the Boneyard is the 8th L...
I've said several times here now that I believe Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series to be the best PI series ever written. Some of the books individually stand with any of the classics produced by people like Raymond Chandler et al., but Block has produced far more books in this series (sixte...
This is something like the fourth in the series featuring bookstore owner and lock-picking burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr (I'm not sure how many there are in total, but I know it's at least 10). I do know every one I've read so far has been quite entertaining.Honestly, the plots are pretty much same o...
When, in my post on the previous entry in Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder series, I wrote that it marked a return to form, I was expecting the remaining novels to be solid and mostly unadventurous, with the series settling into a comfortable groove that it would run along in until it eventually ...
Matthew Scudder, assisted by larger and larger doses of bourbon & coffee, investigates the brutal murder of a blackmailer known as the Spinner. The prime suspects are the Spinner’s three cash cows, including: 1. A former hooker/porn star turned high society wife; 2. A wealthy father of a reckless...
This one's actually a twofer. In the first novella ('Black Orchids'), an obnoxious young gardener is murdered at a flower show, where Nero Wolfe just happens to be on hand, having made one of his once-in-a-blue-moon excursions out of doors to ogle the world's only black orchids, which are on disp...
Highly-enjoyable (and funny!) read – though perhaps my enjoyment in it stemmed more from the dialogues/ banter between the characters and the way Bernie’s mind worked rather than from how the plot eventually unfurled.To get it out of the way: no, I really was not all that enthused with how the tr...
ALERT: HARD CASE CRIME MAY CAUSE INTENSE, MULTIPLE BOOKGASMS!!HCC, you saucy, filthy, gorgeous little minx. I’m so glad I found you. After gobbling up book #1, I learned there are...steady...steady...65 MORE OF THESE...which made me...well... NOIRites, I gotta tell you, I fell hard, fast and "da...
Mickey Spillane, while perhaps not as revered in literary circles as Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, provides what could be the greatest raw detective-adventure stories. Spillane's Hammer is more raw and brutal than either Hammett's Spade or Chandler's Marlowe; I think he's also more satis...
Lawrence Block has been named a Grand Master my the Mystery Writers of America. He's also won multiple Edgar Awards, Shamus Awards, and the most prestigious Diamond Dagger award. In short, he's good. He's long been near the top of my list of favorite authors and it's odd that, in the roughly ...
Lawrence Block's homage (of sorts) to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe. It doesn't so much imitate as try to update (circa 1974) the basic story concept. It comes across as something of a low rent, almost seedy Nero Wolfe knock-off with a lot of sex going on. At times it seems more satire than homage whi...
In reading Lawrence Block's crime fiction, I have to come to expect his proficiency in highlighting a character's desperation, his/her frailty. Turns out he's been doing that under pen names as well, as evidenced by this erotic novel originally published under the name Jill Emerson.With Janet, a ...