New Releases by Lawrence Block

Louis Pinell, the recently apprehended "Icepick Prowler," freely admits to having slain seven young women nine years ago -- but be swears it was a copycat who killed Barbara Ettinger Matthew Scudder believes him. But the trail to Ettinger''s true murderer is twisted, dark and dangerous...and even colder than the almost decade-old corpse the p.i. is determined to avenge.

More than 40 years after his debut and nearly a decade since his last appearance, one of the most renowned characters in all of crime fiction is back on the case. Well past retirement age and feeling his years-but still staying sober one day at a time-Matthew Scudder learns that alcoholics aren't the only ones who count the days since their last slip. Matt's longtime partner, Elaine, tells him of a group of former sex workers who do something similar, helping each other stay out of the life. But when one young woman describes an abusive client who's refusing to let her quit, Elaine encourages her to get help of a different sort. The sort only Scudder can deliver. A Time to Scatter Stones offers not just a gripping crime story but also a richly drawn portrait of Block's most famous character as he grapples with his own mortality while proving to the younger generation that he's still got what it takes. For Scudder's millions of fans around the world (including the many who met the character through Liam Neeson's portrayal in the film version of A Walk Among the Tombstones), A Time to Scatter Stones is an unexpected gift-a valedictory appearance that will remind readers why Scudder is simply the best there is.

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

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.

"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.

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.

After spending her girlhood writing gentle and thoughtful novels of the lesbian experience (SHADOWS, WARM AND WILLING, ENOUGH OF SORROW), Jill Emerson reinvented herself in the early 1970s, just when contemporary literature was experiencing an enormous flowering of sexuality. Even as the whole culture rocked with the sexual revolution, popular fiction echoed this change with a flinging off of censorship and a surge of sexual candor. And Jill wrote three books for Berkley. The first, THIRTY, was in the form of a diary, piling incident upon incident as the diarist, a woman in her thirtieth year, fled her safe suburban marriage and went off in search of her real self. The second, THREESOME, took the form of a collaborative novel in which the three participants in a menage a trois wrote a book together to chronicle their own experience—an experience that continued to evolve as each read what the others had written. A MADWOMAN’S DIARY, you won’t be surprised to learn, is a return to the diary form. Once again the diarist is a young woman, seeking a richer and more fulfilling life in and out of bed. But the book owes its storyline to more than Jill Emerson’s imagination. Interestingly enough, it grows out of a psychosexual case history previously reported by John Warren Wells. Jill, having read JWW’s book in manuscript, couldn’t get one particular case out of her head. It was, she thought, a perfect springboard for fiction. And the next thing she knew she was typing away, entirely caught up in the woman’s story as it spooled itself out of her typewriter. John Warren Wells was unlikely to object. He and Jill, always friends, occasionally lovers, were comfortable sharing their work, and not infrequently would dedicate their books to each other. And, even if JWW found Jill’s decorous plagiarism unsettling, what could he possibly do about it? Both he and Jill are in fact pen names—or, if you prefer, alternate selves—of author Lawrence Block. So they have all the reason in the world to get along. This ebook edition of A MADWOMAN’S DIARY includes as a bonus the opening chapter of the seventh Jill Emerson novel, THE TROUBLE WITH EDEN.

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).

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.

Perry Christo is a PI with a past. A one-time NYPD homicide cop, his career was ruined when a cops-on-the-take scandal ripped through the department. Though innocent, Perry had no way to prove it, and when he lost his job it was the last nail in the coffin of a strained marriage - his wife left him and took their young daughter with her. In order to drown his anger and grief, Perry throws himself into mindless work as a private investigator for petty crimes. But one day, a call from an Upper East Side matron, Julia Drusilla, throws his world upside down. Julia needs Perry to track down her stunningly beautiful yet hopelessly aimless daughter, Angelina, who has disappeared. Her 21st birthday is around the corner and she is set to inherit her grandfather's considerable wealth. But as Perry digs deeper into the case, into one suspect after another, he discovers that Angelina may have more to her story than anyone may have realized, and that the person who has threatened her life is now coming after him. SAFE HORIZON Santlofer has arranged to donate any royalties in excess of editor and contributor compensation to Safe Horizon, the leading victim assistance agency in the country. Safe Horizon envisions a society free of family and community violence and leads the way by empowering victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking to move from crisis to confidence. www.safehorizon.org

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.

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

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.

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?

A deranged derelict, a crazed Vietnam vet, has been arrested for gunning down successful young lawyer Glenn Holtzmann at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue -- and the suspect''s brother wants p.i. Matthew Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But Scudder''s curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart...and to passions and secrets that could destroy everything be loves.

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.

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.

The Cold War''s boiling over. Global tensions are near the breaking point. So what''s the perfect assignment for a super-spy who hasn''t slept since the Korean conflict? A fun-filled trip to the Montreal World''s Fair! The adorable little girl he''s escorting—who, under different circumstances, would be sitting on the Lithuanian throne—can hardly contain her excitement, but it isn''t all playtime for Evan Tanner. Some mysterious disappearances, apparently linked to the fair''s Cuban exhibition, need to be looked into. Keeping his mind on business, however, won''t be easy after an insatiable lovely in a tiger skin falls into Tanner''s arms, and a mother lode of dangerous drugs falls into his lap. But the biggest, deadliest suprise is the terrorist plot Tanner''s tumbling into, and he''ll have to think and act quickly to prevent the visiting queen of England from being blown to smithereens.

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.

In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he''ll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving.

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.