New Releases by Lawrence Block

TWO OF THE GREATEST AUTHORS OF NOIR FICTION IN AN UNFORGETTABLE COLLABORATION An innocent woman lies dead in the street, felled by a stray bullet. Now it’s up to the woman who killed her to investigate the dead woman’s life and pick up its cut-short threads, carrying out a mission of vengeance on her behalf against the man she loved and lost – and the nightclub-singing femme fatale responsible for splitting them apart. Begun in the last years of his life by noir master Cornell Woolrich, the haunted genius responsible for such classics as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, and Phantom Lady, and completed decades later by acclaimed novelist and MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block (A Walk Among the Tombstones, Eight Million Ways to Die), INTO THE NIGHT – available here for the first time in more than 35 years – is a collaboration that extends beyond the grave, echoing the book’s own story of the living taking on and completing the unfinished work of the dead.

"Ingenious . . . Plunges the reader into a desperate, working-class America now better known through William Lindsay Gresham’s precisely contemporary novel Nightmare Alley and such film-noir classics as Out of the Past and The Postman Always Rings Twice."—Washington Post In the rough edges of 1940s Chicago, the discovery of a corpse in an alleyway isn’t always enough to cause a big stir—especially when the victim is killed in the midst of a night-long bender, caught between barrooms in what appears to be a mugging gone awry. Which is why the police don’t take a huge interest in finding the murderer of Wallace Hunter, a linotype operator who turns up dead after a solitary drinking adventure that led through many of the Loop’s less reputable establishments. But for his teenage son, Ed, and his carny brother, Am, something about Wallace’s death feels fishy, a fact that grows increasingly bothersome when it becomes clear that some of the witnesses aren’t telling the whole story. In order to get to the heart of the matter, they’ll need all the skills Am picked up in the circus life—skills that young Ed will have to pick up on fast. And in the process of discovering the killer, they make another discovery as well: Wallace was a much different man than the father Ed thought he knew. The Edgar Award-winning novel that announced a legendary voice in crime fiction, The Fabulous Clipjoint is the first in Fredric Brown’s long-running Ed & Am Hunter series. The book’s memorable mixture of a hardboiled mystery with an urban coming of age narrative remains fresh to this day.

Lawrence Block remembers: "Back in the 1960s, when I was writing erotic novels for several publishers, I trauned and employed several ghostwriters. The first, William Coons, was recruited by my friend Donald Westlake; MAN FOR RENT is half his work and half mine, and here''s what wrote about it in my memoir of those early years, A Writer Prepares..." This happened fairly early in Bill''s ghosting career, when he was living with his wife and daughter in Washington Heights-but not too early, because it was after Nightstand had upped their order to two Andrew Shaw titles a month. I''d let myself be lured back into the game. So we were each writing a monthly book, and you''d think one of Hamling''s editors would have to have suspected something, but if so he kept it to himself. Bill and I wrote our books and the checks kept coming. And one day I gave him a call. "I wrote three chapters of a book," I said, "and I just went dead on it, and I hate it, and I don''t want to write any more of it but I hate to let sixty pages go to waste. Why don''t you read what I''ve done, and if you can see a way to go on you can write the next three chapters, and then we''ll alternate until we''ve got a book. And Henry can submit it as our collaboration." "By Andrew Shaw and Dell Holland?" Dell Holland was the pen name Bill had chosen for his own non-Shaw work. "Sure," I said. "And we''ll each write half the book and take half the money." That sounded fine to him, so I got on the A train and took the three chapters uptown. "A sow''s ear," I said. "Make some kind of a purse out of it. It doesn''t have to be silk." Then the two of us went out for a beer. Maybe two beers, or even three, and then I got back on the subway and headed home. And he returned to his apartment. His wife had come home in the interim, and saw the stack of sow''s-ear manuscript on the table where Bill had left it, and she was just finishing the last page when he walked in the door. "This is really good," she told him. "You''re really improving, honey. This is far and away the best thing you''ve ever written." One of the best things about the story-and one of the worst things as well-is that Bill chose to tell it on himself. The fellow was not without a sense of irony. And he did in fact write the next three chapters, and we shuttled the manuscript back and forth until it was done, and Henry sent it to Nightstand and in due course it was published. Not by Andrew Shaw & Dell Holland, Nightstand never used dual bylines, but as Man For Rent, by John Dexter. (That was a house name, fastened at the editor''s whim on odd books and extra books, and this was both.) And who wrote which chapters, and how do they compare in quality? I leave that decision to you, Gentle Reader.

Here''s CHIP HARRISON--the second series character created by Lawrence Block, bestselling author of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES... How can a series predicated on the hero''s sexual innocence survive past a second book? How can our Chip remain the same age forever? Simple, Block decided, and put our Lecher in the Wry to work for a private detective, the remarkable Leo Haig. Haig believes that Nero Wolfe really exists, and that if he distinguishes himself professionally he may one day be invited to dine at the Great Man''s table. And Chip hires on as Haig''s eyes and ears--if not his nose and throat. MAKE OUT WITH MURDER is at once a tightly plotted murder mystery, a Nero Wolfe pastiche, and a wildly funny and erotic romp featuring five beautiful sisters and some rare coins. Trust me, you''ll love 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...

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.

"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"--

Five-time Edgar winner and MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block wrote a monthly column for Writers Digest Magazine for fourteen years. The Liar''s Bible consists of previously uncollected columns, chosen to illuminate the often dimly-lit path of the writer of fiction. Here''s what one reviewer said on Goodreads: "I am fascinated by the creative process and there are few excellent examples of this that I have found - there is Koestler''s The Act of Creation insightful in a general way- but I have found only two worth their salt about working creators - Trauffaut''s interviews with Hitchcock collected in Trauffaut/Hitchcock and Thomas Hoving''s two interviews with Andrew Wyeth - published as Autobiography and Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth - but reading Lawrence Block''s collected columns on writing from Writer''s Digest I have discovered outstanding examples of this somewhat mysterious creative process. "Now I am anxious to read his other collected columns - Block of course writes so fluidly that, as one Stephen King fan commented, I would probably read his grocery list - but he also asks brilliant questions of himself and does a terrific job answering and commenting on these. "This is a must read for anyone intrigued by writers, artists, the creative process or those eager to write whether already published or hoping to be soon." And here''s another: "What an absolute treat it is to re-read these columns, nearly 30 years after I first read many of them in the pages of Writer''s Digest. I first started reading WD in high school, and subscribed for years, mostly for Lawrence Block''s fiction-writing columns. This book collects all of his pieces from that era. Sure, a few pieces of advice -- mostly related to the marketplace for fiction -- have since become, oh, just slightly dated, but most of the wisdom still applies, not just for fiction writers but for all writers. These columns were, indeed, my bible in the early stages of my writing life. I owe a lot to Block, and I''m glad to have the chance to reflect back on how his writing influenced not just my own wordsmithing but also my life."

A truly unprecedented literary achievement by author and editor Lawrence Block, a newly-commissioned anthology of seventeen superbly-crafted stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, including Jeffery Deaver, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Lee Child, and Robert Olen Butler, among many others. “Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers, and yet his paintings never tell a story so much as they invite viewers to find for themselves the untold stories within.” So says Lawrence Block, who has invited seventeen outstanding writers to join him in an unprecedented anthology of brand-new stories: In Sunlight or In Shadow. The results are remarkable and range across all genres, wedding literary excellence to storytelling savvy. Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Spider Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Lawrence Block himself. Even Gail Levin, Hopper’s biographer and compiler of his catalogue raisonée, appears with her own first work of fiction, providing a true account of art theft on a grand scale and told in the voice of the country preacher who perpetrated the crime. In a beautifully produced anthology as befits such a collection of acclaimed authors, each story is illustrated with a quality reproduction of the painting that inspired it.

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

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

Small-time stoolie, Jake " The Spinner" Jablon, made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money -- and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in.And what''s worse, no one cares -- except Matthew Scudder. The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscientious avenging angel. But he''s willing to risk his own life and limb to confront Spinner''s most murderously aggressive marks. A job''s a job after all -- and Scudder''s been paid to find a killer -- by the victim...in advance.

Matthew Scudder knows that justice is an elusive commodity in the big city, where a harmless man can be shot dead in a public place criminals fly free through holes in a tattered legal system. But now a vigilante is roaming among the millions, executing those he fees deserve to die. He calls himself "The Will of the People"—an ingenious serial killer who announces his specific murderous intentions to the media before carrying through on his threats. A child molester, a Mafia don, a violent anti-abortionist—even the protected and untouchable are being ruthlessly erased by New York''s latest celebrity avenger. Scudder knows that no one is innocent—but who among us has the right to play God? It is a question that will haunt the licensed p.i. on his journey through the bleak city grays, as he searches for the sanity in urban madness. . .and for a frighteningly efficient killer who can do the impossible.

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?

This is a city that seduces dreamers . . . then eats their dreams. Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best—and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell''s Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he''s finding love—and death—in the worst possible places.

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.

Book description to come.

The author of dozens of acclaimed novels including those in the Scudder and Keller series, Lawrence Block has long been recognized as one of the premier crime writers of our time. Now, the breathtaking skill, power, and versatility of this Grand Master are brilliantly displayed once again in a mesmerizing new thriller set on the streets of the city he knows and loves so well. That was the thing about New York -- if you loved it, if it worked for you, it ruined you for anyplace else in the world. In this dazzlingly constructed novel, Lawrence Block reveals the secret at the heart of the Big Apple. His glorious metropolis is really a small town, filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations, fears, disappointments, and triumphs are interconnected by bonds as unbreakable as they are unseen. Pulsating with the lives of its denizens -- bartenders and hookers, power brokers and politicos, cops and secretaries, editors and dreamers -- the city inspires a passion that is universal yet unique in each of its eight million inhabitants, including: John Blair Creighton, a writer on the verge of a breakthrough; Francis Buckram, a charismatic ex–police commissioner -- and the inside choice for the next mayor -- on the verge of a breakdown; Susan Pomerance, a beautiful, sophisticated folk-art dealer plumbing the depths of her own fierce sexuality; Maury Winters, a defense attorney who prefers murder trials because there''s one less witness; Jerry Pankow, an ex-addict who has turned being clean into a living, mopping up after New York''s nightlife; And, in the shadows of a city reeling from tragedy, an unlikely killing machine who wages a one-man war against them all. Infused with the raw cadence, stark beauty, and relentless pace of New York City, Small Town is a tour de force Block fans old and new will celebrate.

The New York Times–bestselling author “ratchets up the suspense with breathtaking results as only a skilled, inventive and talented writer can do” (Orlando Sentinel). A man in a Virginia prison awaits execution for three horrific murders he must have committed but swears he didn’t . . . An aging investigator in New York City has seen too much and lost too much—and is ready to leave the darkness behind . . . But a nightmare is coming home—because a brilliant, savage, patient monster has unfinished business in the big city . . . and a hunger that can be satisfied only by fear and the slow, agonizing death of Matthew Scudder and the woman he loves. “Block, who couldn’t write a dull scene even if he tried to, is in fine form here.” —Los Angeles Times “Block, as always, takes his readers on a wildly entertaining ride.” —The Buffalo News “A thrilling, satisfying concoction brewed by a master storyteller in top form.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An unforgettable tale of violence, death and deceit.” —Lansing State Journal “A page-turning work of art.” —Toronto Sun

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.

Keller is a regular guy. He goes to the movies, works on his stamp collection. Call him for jury duty and he serves without complaint. Then every so often he gets a phone call from White Plains that sends him flying off somewhere to kill a perfect stranger. Keller is a pro and very good at what he does. But the jobs have started to go wrong. The realization is slow coming yet, when it arrives, it is irrefutable: Someone out there is trying to hit the hit man. Keller, God help him, has found his way onto somebody else''s hit list.

Matt Scudder is finally leading a comfortable life. The crime rate''s down and the stock market''s up. Gentrification''s prettying-up the old neighborhood. The New York streets don''t look so mean anymore. Then all hell breaks loose. Scudder quickly discovers the spruced-up sidewalks are as mean as ever, dark and gritty and stained with blood. He''s living in a world where the past is a minefield, the present is a war zone, and the future''s an open question. It''s a world where nothing is certain and nobody''s safe, a random universe where no one''s survival can be taken for granted. Not even his own. A world where everybody dies.

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 successful socialite''s beautiful wife was raped and murdered in her own home -- and Matt Scudder believes the victim''s "grieving" husband was responsible for the outrage. But to prove it, the haunted p.i. must descend into the depths of New York''s sex-for-sale underworld, where young lives are commodities to be bought, perverted...and destroyed.

The craft of writing is a lot like spinning a web: You take threads and weave them skillfully together, and only you know where this intricate network of twists and turns begin and how it will end. Now, with Lawrence Block''s expert advice, you can learn this art of entrapping your reader in a maze of fascinating fiction. Spider, Spin Me a Web is the perfect companion volume to Block''s previous book on writing, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, which Sue Grafton noted "should be a permanent part of every writer''s library." As helpful and supportive as always, Block shares what he''s learned over the course of writing over one hundred published books: techniques to help you to write a solid piece of fiction; strategies for getting a reader (or editor) to read—and buy—your book; ideas for increasing your creativity and developing an environment that will nourish you and your craft. Spider, Spin Me a Web is a complete guide to achieving your full potential as a writer.

For this spy, there’s no Nazi losing sleep over. An up-all-night thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author and MWA Grand Master. Evan Tanner ran head-first into a piece of shrapnel in Korea, and now he can’t sleep. Ever. Which can be an asset for a dedicated linguist, term paper forger, thief, lost cause enthusiast . . . Spy. Tanner takes on jobs for a covert intelligence organization so secret that even those who work for it have no idea who they’re working for. Now his nameless supervisor wants him to sneak behind the Iron Curtain, storm an impregnable castle in Prague (alone!), and rescue an old Slovak who’s got a pressing date with a hangman’s noose. The trouble is the prisoner is an unrepentant Nazi who makes Goering look like Mister Rogers. Tanner hates Nazis. If he’s caught (which is likely) the U.S. will deny that they know him. And Tanner will be executed. After being tortured, no doubt. All in all, there are many excellent reasons why Tanner should refuse this assignment. So, naturally, he says yes. Praise for Lawrence Block “Block is one of the best!” —The Washington Post “Block is a deft surgeon, sure and precise.” —The New York Times “Block generates nonstop suspense.” —Publishers Weekly “One of our best authors.” —San Diego Union-Tribune

The CIA, the FBI, the KGB, Interpol—not one of the world''s premier intelligence organizations knows quite what to make of Evan Michael Tanner. Is he a spy, a mercenary, a footloose adventurer, or simply a screwball sucker for hopeless causes? (Actually he''s a little bit of all of the above. Plus he never sleeps. Ever.) One thing''s for sure: Tanner''s a true romantic, which is why he can''t refuse a distraught mother who begs him to rescue her lost, pure-as-driven-snow daughter. Phaedra Harrow (nee Deborah Horowitz) once shared Tanner''s apartment but not his bed. And now the virginal beauty''s been abducted by white slavers in the Afghan wilderness. Finding Phaedra will be difficult enough. Bringing her back alive and unmolested may be impossible. And first Tanner will have to swim the English Channel, survive trigger-happy Russian terrorists . . . and maybe pull off a timely assassination or two.