New Releases by Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block''s "lost" stories, complete and uncut for the first time since their original publication! The focus and subject matter of mid-century men''s adventure magazines (MAMs) could be wide-ranging, and versatile storytellers able to confidently navigate genres, approaches, and authorial voices found regular, lucrative work in their pages. Among those talented writers was a notable newcomer: Lawrence Block-though his initial pieces would see print under various pseudonyms. Not the Lawrence Block you know, who is among the most widely read, respected, and celebrated writers of crime and mystery fiction in the world. A writer internationally read and internationally honored, upon whom The Mystery Writers of America bestowed the title of Grand Master. A writer with over 65 years of professional experience in damn near every kind of writing, whose essays, magazine columns, and non-fiction books focused on the art, craft, and business of writing have endured to inform generations. Not that Lawrence Block. Not yet... The latest release in the acclaimed Men''s Adventure Library series, THE NAKED AND THE DEADLY collects Block''s earliest fiction and non-fiction for men''s adventure magazines (MAMs) in two handsome editions: A pocket-sized mass-market softcover designed to honor LB''s many successful paperback releases, and a big, beautiful, full-color hardcover that''s packed with bonus content, including additional illustration art, deep background from the editors, and a bonus story by Block! A signed and numbered limited edition is also available directly from the publisher while stocks last.

AT CARDS AND WITH WOMEN, BILL MAYNARD KNEW HOW TO CHEAT On the mend after getting run out of Chicago, professional cardsharp Bill Maynard is hungry for some action--but not nearly as hungry as Joyce Rogers, the tantalizing wife of Bill''s latest mark. Together they hatch an ingenious scheme to get rid of her husband. But in life as in poker, the other player sometimes has an ace up his sleeve...

Lawrence Block has been writing and publishing crime fiction for sixty years. He''s received recognition for lifetime achievement in the US and the UK. His books have won awards and occasionally show up on bestseller lists. Several of them have been fimed. DEAD GIRL BLUES is a new novel, available for the first time in 2020.

A WOMAN MUST LOVE is #12 in the Collection of Classic Erotica, and it''s never been reissued since Midwood brought it out in 1960

Seventeen stories by seventeen brilliant writers, inspired by seventeen paintings. That was the formula for Lawrence Block’s two ground-breaking anthologies, In Sunlight or in Shadow and Alive in Shape and Color, and it’s on glorious display here once again in From Sea to Stormy Sea.This time the paintings are exclusively the work of American artists, and the roster includes Harvey Dunn, John Steuart Curry, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Helen Frankenthaler, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Grant Wood, Childe Hassam and Andy Warhol. Among the star-studded lineup of writers you’ll find Jerome Charyn, Jane Hamilton, Christa Faust, John Sandford, Sara Paretsky, Walter Mosley, Charles Ardai, Barry Malzberg, and Janice Eidus. It’s an outstanding collection, with widely divergent stories united by theme and culture, and—no surprise—beautifully illustrated with full-color reproductions of the seventeen paintings.

"Matthew Scudder is dying, one bottle at a time. A young prostitute named Kim Dakkinen is dying too, her life measured out in tricks. She wanted out, had asked for Scudder''s help, but suddenly she wasn''t dying anymore, she was just dead. The former cop turned P.I. promised to protect her, but he failed. Now his atonement is to find her killer. But the secrets in the dead hooker''s past are dirtier than her living, and searching for a killer in a city where everyone''s a victim is a good way to make the role permanent"--

Happily retired, Keller takes a job as a private investigator to investigate an adulterous spouse.

Cashed out from the NYPD after 24 years, Doak Miller operates as a private eye in steamy small-town Florida, doing jobs for the local police. Like posing as a hit man and wearing a wire to incriminate a local wife who’s looking to get rid of her husband. But when he sees the wife, when he looks into her deep blue eyes… He falls – and falls hard. Soon he’s working with her, against his employer, plotting a devious plan that could get her free from her husband and put millions in her bank account. But can they do it without landing in jail? And once he’s kindled his taste for killing...will he be able to stop at one?

WHEN YOU CAN''T CALL THE COPS, YOU CALL SCUDDER. Kenan Khoury''s wife went out grocery shopping and never came home. Alive, anyway. But because Kenan Khoury buys and sells drugs for a living he can''t go to the police for help. He goes to Matthew Scudder instead -- an alcoholic ex-cop and unlicensed private eye who will stop at nothing to bring the brutal killers to justice before another innocent woman falls beneath their knives. One of the most acclaimed detectives of all time, Lawrence Block''s Matthew Scudder returns to the big screen in his most shocking case ever, courtesy of international superstar Liam Neeson (TAKEN) and writer/director Scott Frank (GET SHORTY, OUT OF SIGHT).

The long-awaited eleventh novel in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series. Everybody''s favourite 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 must-have collection of essays on the art and craft of fiction from Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block. Collected here for the first time are writings that illuminate the tricks of the authorial trade, from creating a fresh story and delivering a powerful ending, to adapting books for the screen and deciding when to make the switch to fulltime writer.

Facing his demons in his first year of sobriety, Matthew Scudder finds himself on the trail of a killer. When Scudder''s childhood friend Jack Ellery is murdered, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins, Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead: Ellery''s Alcoholics Anonymous list of people he wronged. One of them may be a killer, but that''s not necessarily Scudder''s greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery''s world may lead him right back to the bar stool. In a novel widely celebrated by critics and readers, Lawrence Block circle back to how it all began, reestablishing the Matthew Scudder series as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction. "Right up there with Mr. Block''s best . . . A Drop of Hard Stuff keeps us guessing." -- Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

Meet Linda Shepard. She''s sick to death with being wholesome. Linda thinks she knows what would cure her ills. She''s looking for a man. A capable man. Her first man. The campus of Clifton College is the perfect hunting grounds. It''s swelling with men and brimming with liquor, and it doesn''t take Linda long to find her prize. Don Gibbs is the editor of the Clifton Record. He''s brusque, he''s unkempt, and he somehow maintains his broad physique with a strict diet of booze, coffee and cigarettes. Soon enough his piercing intellect and hedonistic ways bring Linda to her knees and lower, lower still. Is she in over her head? As Linda soon discovers, sex can be a dangerous game... Almost as dangerous as love. Lawrence Block is the bestselling author of over fifty novels, including the much-heralded Matthew Scudder crime series. As a young man in New York, Block wrote pornographic paperbacks for outfits such as Nightstand Books to publish under their own house pseudonyms. In this case, Campus Tramp was released as the work of Andrew Shaw; examined retrospectively, however, it has Block written all over it. The year is 1960 and the setting is Clifton College, a thinly disguised analog for the real-life Antioch College, Block''s own Alma Mater, just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. Campus Tramp is loaded with references to Antioch''s landmarks, personages, history and... reputation. Whether read as a time capsule from the eve of the sexual revolution traversing taboo topics like homosexuality and abortion, or just as a retro sex romp by a masterful writer at the dawn of his career, Campus Tramp, like its titular protagonist Linda Shepard, has something to offer everybody.

Bookseller and New-Yorker-to-the-bone, Bernie Rhodenbarr rarely ventures out of Manhattan, but he''s excited about the romantic getaway he has planned for himself and current lady love Lettice at the Cuttleford House, a remote upstate b&b. Unfortunately, Lettice has a prior engagement—she''s getting married . . . and not to Bernie—so he decides to take best buddy Carolyn instead. A restful respite from the big city''s bustle would be too good to waste. Besides, there''s a very valuable first edition shelved in the Cuttleford''s library that Bernie''s just itching to get his hands on. Did we neglect to mention that Bernie''s a burglar? But first he''s got to get around a very dead body on the library floor. The plot''s thickened by an isolating snowstorm, downed phone lines, the surprise arrival of Lettice and her reprehensible new hubby, and a steadily increasing corpse count. And it''s Bernie who''ll have to figure out whodunit . . . or die.

A thief finds himself in the wrong place and suspected of the wrong crime in the "unfailingly entertaining" series from bestselling author ( The New York Times). It''s hard to ignore someone with his hands in your mouth. Bernie Rhodenbarr''s all ears when Dr. Sheldrake, his dentist, starts complaining about his detestable, soon-to-be-ex wife, and happens to mention the valuable diamonds she keeps lying around the apartment. Since Bernie''s been known to supplement his income as a bookstore owner with the not-so-occasional bout of high-rise burglary, a couple of nights later he''s in the Sheldrake apartment with larceny on his mind—and has to duck into a closet when the lady of the house makes an unexpected entrance. Unfortunately he''s still there when an unseen assailant does Mrs. Sheldrake in . . . and then vanishes with the jewels. Bernie''s got to come out of the closet some time. But when he does, he''ll be facing a rap for a murder he didn''t commit—and for a burglary he certainly attempted—unless he can hunt down the killer who left him hanging. "Light-hearted crime at its very best." —Robert Ludlum "Hilarious." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch "A forgery ring turns up—along with the breezy Manhattan repartee and charmingly crude New Yorkers we''ve come to expect from the likably smart-alecky Mr. Block." — Kirkus Reviews

Bernie Rhodenbarr is a personable chap, a good neighbor, a passable poker player. His chosen profession, however, might not sit well with some. Bernie is a burglar, a good one, effortlessly lifting valuables from the not-so-well-protected abodes of well-to-do New Yorkers like a modern-day Robin Hood. (The poor, as Bernie would be the first to tell you, alas, have nothing worth stealing.) He''s not perfect, however; he occasionally makes mistakes. Like accepting a paid assignment from a total stranger to retrieve a particular item from a rich man''s apartment. Like still being there when the cops arrive. Like having a freshly slain corpse lying in the next room, and no proof that Bernie isn''t the killer. Now he''s really got his hands full, having to locate the true perpetrator while somehow eluding the police -- a dirty job indeed, but if Bernie doesn''t do it, who will?

The city caught its collective breath when upscale couple Byrne and Susan Hollander were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Now, a few days later, the killers themselves have turned up dead behind the locked door of a Brooklyn hellhole -- one apparently slain by his partner in crime who then took his own life. There''s something drawing Matthew Scudder to this case that the cops have quickly and eagerly closed: a nagging suspicion that a third man is involved, a cold, diabolical puppet master who manipulates his two accomplices, then cuts their strings when he''s done with them. No one but Scudder even suspects he exists. And his worst fear is that the guy is just getting started ...

Cold War superspy Evan Tanner lost the ability to sleep on a battlefield in Korea. So where the heck has he been since the ''70s? Frozen. Cryogenically. A Tanner-sicle. Which he never thought would happen when he walked into a basement in Union City, New Jersey, more than a quarter century ago. Now he''s unthawed and ready to rumble, and his somewhat addled, former super-secret boss, "the Chief," is glad his favorite operative''s active again. Tanner awoke to a different world, though some bad things have remained the same . . . or gotten worse. Even before he can fully acclimate himself to this perplexing future, Tanner''s off to Burma (which isn''t really Burma anymore) to pose as a monk, destabilize the government, dodge a lethal double-cross, and rescue a beautiful prisoner. The world''s still full of conspiracy, corruption, greed, political chicanery—and beautiful women. So Tanner''s back with a vengeance, with a lot of lost time to make up for.

A philosophical yet practical gentleman, Bernie Rhodenbarr possesses many admirable qualities: charm, intelligence, sparkling wit, and unwavering loyalty. Of course, he also has this special talent and a taste for life''s finer things. So he''s more than willing to perform some vengeful larceny for a friend -- ripping off a smarmy, particularly deserving plastic surgeon -- for fun and a very tidy profit. But during a practice run at another address, Bernie''s forced to hide under a bed when the lady of the house returns unexpectedly with the worst kind of blind date in tow. In no time, Bernie''s up to his burgling neck in big trouble. Again. And this time it includes his arrest, no less than four murders, and more outrageous coincidences than any self-preserving felon should ever be required to tie together.

It''s a jungle out there. Literally. At least for Evan Tanner, eternally sleepless sometime superspy, who finds himself in Africa on the trail of the AWOL ruler of tiny Modonoland. It seems the petty despot''s gone missing, and he''s taken the state treasury along with him. No stranger to impossible missions and international peril, Tanner''s been in over his head before. This time, however, he''s in imminent danger of being buried alive. And it all has to do with the CIA, white supremacists, moderate revolutionaries . . . and a blond jungle bombshell named ( no joke!) Sheena. Tanner''s always been a sucker for a pretty face and a curvaceous body, especially one that''s wrapped in leopard skin. But this red hot renegade daughter of a local missionary is a maneater. Which means this time Tanner''s goose is well and truly cooked.

In the era before he created moody private investigator Matthew Scudder, burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, sleepless spy Evan Tanner, and the amiable hit man Keller—and years before his first Edgar Award—a young writer named Lawrence Block submitted a story titled "You Can''t Lose" to Manhunt magazine. It was published, and the rest is history. One Night Stands and Lost Weekends is a sterling collection of short crime fiction and suspense novelettes penned between 1958 and 1962 by a budding young master and soon-to-be Grand Master—an essential slice of genre history, and more fun than a high-speed police chase following a bank job gone bad.

Characters refusing to talk? Plot plodding along? Where do good ideas come from anyway? In this wonderfully practical volume, two-time Edgar Award-winning novelist Lawrence Block takes an inside look at writing as a craft and as a career. From studying the market, to mastering self-discipline and "creative procrastination," through coping with rejections, Telling Lies for Fun & Profit is an invaluable sourcebook of information. It is a must read for anyone serious about writing or understanding how the process works.

Keller''s a hit man. For years now he''s had places to go and people to kill. But enough is enough. He''s got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he heads home, and guess what? One more job. Paid in advance, so what''s he going to do? Give the money back?In Des Moines, Keller stalks his designated target and waits for the client to give him the go-ahead. And one fine morning he''s picking out stamps for his collection (Sweden 1-5, the official reprints) at a shop in Urbandale when somebody guns down the charismatic governor of Ohio. Back at his motel, Keller''s watching TV when they show the killer''s face. And there''s something all too familiar about that face. . . . Keller calls his associate Dot in White Plains, but there is no answer. He''s stranded halfway across the country, every cop in America''s just seen his picture, his ID and credit cards are no longer good, and he just spent almost all of his cash on the stamps. Now what?

Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in the city of New York. Except a young prostitute named Kim—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn''t deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn''t deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned P.I. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons in a seedy hotel room. Now, finding Kim''s killer will be Scudder''s penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker''s past that are far dirtier than her trade. And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town—some quick and brutal . . . and some agonizingly slow. With this book, which won the Shamus Award and was short-listed for the Edgar, Lawrence Block elevated the Matthew Scudder series to the top tier of American detective fiction. This special hardcover edition features an afterword by the author. Read Eight Million Ways to Die, the novel that proves Block to be one of the best mystery writers working today.

Evan Michael Tanner hasn''t slept in more than a decade—not since a small piece of battlefield shrapnel invaded his skull and obliterated his brain''s sleep center. Still, he''s managed to find numerous inventive ways to occupy his waking hours. Tanner is a card-carrying member of hundreds of international organizations, from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Order to the Flat Earth Society—not because he believes in their myriad lost causes, he''s simply a joiner by nature. Besides, it gives him something to do. The Russians think Tanner is a CIA operative on a covert mission. The CIA is certain he''s a Soviet agent. Actually, he''s in Turkey pursuing a fortune in hidden Armenian gold. But Tanner''s up for anything, including a little spycraft, if it helps him reach his big payday. And if need be, he''ll even start a small revolution . . .

John Keller finds himself getting lonely and begins to have doubts about continuing his job as a paid assassin.

A writer on the verge of a breakdown, a folk art dealer exploring her sexuality, and a lawyer who prefers murder trials are all connected by an unlikely mass murder.

There is no accolade or major mystery award that has not already been bestowed upon Lawrence Block. His acclaimed crime novels are asintelligent, provocative, and emotionally complex as they are nerve-tighteningly intense. And perhaps the most respected of his myriad works are the Matthew Scudder books -- masterworks of suspenseful invention featuring a remarkable protagonist rich in conscience and character, with all the flaws that his humanity entails. This is the detective novel as high art. A Dance At The Slaughterhouse In Matt Scudder''s mind, money, power, and position elevate nobody above morality and the law. Now the ex-cop and unlicensed p.i. has been hired to prove that socialite Richard Thurman orchestrated the brutal murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife. During Scudder''s hard drinking years, he left a piece of his soul on every seedy corner of the Big Apple. But this case is more depraved and more potentially devastating than anything he experienced while floundering in the urban depths. Because this investigation is leading Scudder on a frightening grand tour of New York''s sex-for-sale underworld -- where an innocent young life is simply a commodity to be bought and perverted ... and then destroyed.

Grandmaster and Edgar award-winning author Lawrence Block has brought together 71 of his best stories featuring his most popular series characters. From Matt Scudder in ''The Merciful Angel of Death'' to Bernie Rhodenbarr in ''Like a Thief in the Night'' and Keller''s ''Answers to Soldier'', THE COLLECTED MYSTERY STORIES is the ultimate collection from ''one of the best authors now working the beat'' Wall Street Journal

Leo Haig and his assistant, Chip Harrison, investigate the deaths of an exotic dancer''s tropical fish only to have Harrison witness the murder of their client''s roommate.