Most Popular Books by Lawrence Block

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

Twenty-five years ago Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block introduced his acclaimed unlicensed private investigator to the New York crime scene. Today Matthew Scudder remains one of the most complex, richly human protagonists in noir fiction-as he pursues a faceless adversary with a unique talent and taste for murder. Hope to Die When Byrne and Susan Hollander are killed in a brutal home invasion, the whole city catches its collective breath. A few days later the killers turn up dead behind a locked door in Brooklyn. One has killed his partner, then himself. The city sighs with relief. The cops close the case. Matt and Elaine Scudder were in the same room with the Hollanders hours before their deaths. In spite of himself, Scudder is drawn to the Hollander case. The closer he looks, the more he senses the presence of a third man, a puppet master who manipulated his two accomplices, then cut their strings when he was done with them. The villain who looms in the shadows is one of Block''s most inspired creations, cold and diabolical, murdering for pleasure and profit. Nobody but Scudder even suspects he exists-and he''s not done killing. He''s just getting started.... The prolific author of more than fifty books and numerous short stories, Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, a four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe and Shamus Awards, and the recipient of literary prizes from France, Germany, and Japan. Block is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling.

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.

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING BADLY ENOUGH, YOU''LL GET IT... Bernie Rhodenbarr may be New York''s most charming bookseller (by day) and its most skillful burglar (by night), but the modern world isn''t kind to either of his vocations. How is a bookseller supposed to make ends meet in a world where Amazon will deliver any title right to your doorstep? And how is a burglar to ply his trade in a city filled with security cameras and unpickable electronic locks? The answer, as Bernie will discover in the pages of this wildly imaginative new novel--the twelfth in MWA Grandmaster Lawrence Block''s acclaimed series, and the first in nearly a decade--is that the world can sometimes change in the most unexpected ways. Tempted to steal a priceless diamond from the penthouse apartment of a swinish entrepreneur, Bernie goes out drinking with his best friend Carolyn instead. But when he wakes up with something much stranger than a hangover, he realizes he''s got the opportunity of a lifetime if only he can figure out what to do with it. Taking inspiration from the mind-bending works of one of Bernie''s favorite authors (and one of Block''s), The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown throws Bernie into unfamiliar territory while keeping him squarely on the streets of the city he loves, and if that seems impossible to you, well--maybe that''s because impossible is exactly what it is...

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.

Twelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder''s name -- are turning up dead. Because a vengeful maniac is determined not to rest until he''s driven his nemesis back to the bottle...and then to the boneyard.

Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller by day and burglar by night, is hired to steal back the letters of a reclusive author from his former agent, who now wishes to sell them at auction. Seems like an easy enough job, until Bernie discovers the letters missing and the agent dead.

Accused of a murder he did not commit, a master thief is determined to prove his innocence.

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.

Bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr''s in love—with an exotic Eastern European beauty who shares his obsession with Humphrey Bogart movies. He''s in heaven, munching popcorn with his new amour every night at a Bogart Film Festival—until their Casablanca-esque idyll is cut short by his other secret passion: burglary. When he''s hired to pilfer a portfolio of valuable documents from a Park Avenue apartment, Bernie can hardly refuse. But the occupant''s early return forces Bernie to flee empty-handed—and he soon finds himself implicated in a murder. Before you can say "who stole the strawberries?" he''s hunting for a killer, up to his neck in the outrageous intrigues of a tiny Balkan nation . . . and menaced by more sinister fat men and unsavory toadies than the great Bogie himself butted heads with in pursuit of that darn bird!

It''s not easy to collect, in a single volume, the finest mystery and suspense fiction the world has to offer, but The World''s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: Second Annual Collection rises to that challenge, inviting you to discover what Kirkus Reviews dubs " . . . the year''s anthology of choice." In his Second Annual collection, Ed Gorman once again brings together the year''s most powerful fiction by such outstanding authors as Lawrence Block, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Ed McBain, Joyce Carol Oates, Ian Rankin, and Donald E. Westlake. The volume also abounds with fresh new stories by newer authors, from U. S. publications, and also from sources on other shores, including England, Germany, and the Netherlands. Ed Gorman set benchmark for great mystery and suspense fiction with the First Annual Collection. Overflowing with award-winning authors and terrific stories, The World''s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: Second Annual Collection also promises to be a treasure for anyone who loves a mystery. More than 200,000 words of superlative mystery and suspense fiction from around the world, with stories by: Lawrence Block Jan Burke Dorothy Cannell Clark Howard Peter Lovesey Joyce Carol Oates Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Ian Rankin And many others A Banquet of Mystery and Crime Fiction For those who love outstanding mystery and crime reading, award-winning author and editor, Ed Gorman, has once again collected the best stories of the year from around the world. Immerse yourself in stories that baffle, tantalize, and delight, by the following authors: Miguel Agustí Doug Allyn Noreen Ayres Robert Barnard Lawrence Block Jan Burke Dorothy Cannell Stanley Cohen Mat Coward Peter Crowther Brendan DuBois Jurgen Ehlers Pete Hamill Joseph Hansen Edward D. Hoch Clark Howard Stuart M. Kaminsky Richard Laymon Gillian Linscott Peter Lovesey John Lutz Christine Matthews Ed McBain Bob Mendes Denise Mina Joyce Carol Oates Gary Phillips Nancy Pickard Bill Pronzini Robert J. Randisi Ian Rankin Les Roberts Peter Robinson S. J. Rozan Kristine Kathryn Rusch Donald E. Westlake At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In A Dance at the Slaughterhouse, private investigator Matthew Scudder is on the hunt for the rapist and killer of rich, beautiful Amanda Thurman. But when a snuff film involving a young homeless boy is discovered, the case becomes terrifyingly twisted. Somehow Scudder and his girlfriend Elaine must find the connection between the the two crimes and set a trap for the killer. From the Edgar Award-winning author of A Ticket to the Boneyard.

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.

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.

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."

Forge Books is proud to present an amazing collection of novellas, compiled by New York Times bestselling author Ed McBain. Transgressions is a quintessential classic of never-before-published tales from today''s very best novelists. Featuring: "Walking Around Money" by Donald E. Westlake: The master of the comic mystery is back with an all-new novella featuring hapless crook John Dortmunder, who gets involved in a crime that supposedly no one will ever know happened. Naturally, when something it too good to be true, it usually is, and Dortmunder is going to get to the bottom of this caper before he''s left holding the bag. "Hostages" by Anne Perry: The bestselling historical mystery author has written a tale of beautiful yet still savage Ireland today. In their eternal struggle for freedom, there is about to be a changing of the guard in the Irish Republican Army. Yet for some, old habits-and honor-still die hard, even at gunpoint. "The Corn Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates: When a fourteen-year-old girl is abducted in a small New York town, the crime starts a spiral of destruction and despair as only this master of psychological suspense could write it. "Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line" by Walter Mosley: Felix Orlean is a New York City journalism student who needs a job to cover his rent. An ad in the paper leads him to Archibald Lawless, and a descent into a shadow world where no one and nothing is as it first seems. "The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb: During America''s first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft-including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings the South of the 1850s to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive. "Merely Hate" by Ed McBain: When a string of Muslim cabdrivers are killed, and the evidence points to another ethnic group, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must hunt down a killer before the city explodes in violence. "The Things They Left Behind" by Stephen King: In the wake of the worst disaster on American soil, one man is coming to terms with the aftermath of the Twin Towers--when he begins finding the things they left behind. "The Ransome Women" by John Farris: A young and beautiful starving artist is looking to catch a break when her idol, the reclusive portraitist John Ransome offers her a lucrative year-long modeling contract. But how long will her excitement last when she discovers the fate shared by all Ransome''s past subjects? "Forever" by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop-he''s a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff Department. When two wealthy couples in the county commit suicide one right after the other, he thinks that it isn''t suicide-it''s murder, and he''s going to find how who was behind it, and how the did it. "Keller''s Adjustment" by Lawrence Block: Everyone''s favorite hit man is back in MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block''s novella, where the philosophical Keller deals out philosophy and murder on a meandering road trip from one end of the America to the other. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Bernie Rhodenbarr is actually trying to earn an honest living. It''s been an entire year since he''s entered anyone''s abode illegally to help himself to their valuables. But now an unscrupulous landlord''s threat to increase Bernie''s rent by 1,000% is driving the bookseller and reformed burglar back to a life of crime -- though, in all fairness, it''s a very short trip. And when the cops wrongly accuse him of stealing a priceless collection of baseball cards, Bernie''s stuck with a worthless alibi since he was busy burgling a different apartment at the time . . . one that happened to contain a dead body locked inside a bathroom. So Bernie has a dilemma. He can trade a burglary charge for a murder rap. Or he can shuffle all the cards himself and try to find the joker in the deck -- someone, perhaps, who believes that homicide is the real Great American Pastime.

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 . . .

Sometime spy Evan Tanner has accepted impossible assignments for many reasons: money, thrills, to have something to occupy his waking hours (twenty-four of them every day, in fact, since battlefield shrapnel obliterated his brain''s sleep center). But this might be the first time he''s put his life on the line . . . for love. Tanner''s agreed to smuggle a sexy Latvian gymnast—the lost lady love of a heart-sick friend—out of Russia. With the Cold War at its chilliest and the Iron Curtain slammed shut, this will not be easy, especially since everybody in Eastern Europe, it seems, wants to tag along, including a subversive Slav author and the six-year-old heir to the nonexistent Lithuanian throne. But that''s not the biggest hurdle. The gymnast refuses to budge unless Tanner rescues her eleven delightfully limber teammates as well—and that might be raising the bar too lethally high for even the ever-resourceful Evan Tanner to clear.

"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"--

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.

"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.

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.

The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer-a minister''s son-hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl''s fatherhas come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

Superficially, John Keller - the urban lonely guy of assassins - leads a normal life despite his profession. He has an office manager, the breezily efficient Dot, who organises his ¿jobs¿ and who reassures his grumbling conscience. He is an obsessive stamp collector. In a blackly comic twist, he even gets called for jury service. Laid back, couldn¿t care less, morally distanced from his vocation, Keller is an intriguing character. A visit to an astrologer tells him, and us, that he is a gentle man who is simply surrounded by violence rather than being a perpetrator of it. His professional satisfaction, we learn, comes from ¿solving a problem¿. Taking lives causes him no real anxiety. And then Keller¿s jobs start to go wrong. Targets die before he can get to them. Gradually he realises that he is being stalked. Another hitman is trying to weed out the competition and kill him. Keller and Dot try to turn the tables but how many innocents will get caught in the crossfire before Keller is truly safe?

The second in a new series of 7 Lawrence Block titles featuring Evan Micheal Tanner. He is 34 years old and hasn''t slept a wink since a piece of shrapnel destroyed the sleep centre in his brain during the Korean War. Tanner, enlisted by an undercover agency, so secret it doesn''t have a name, heads for Czechoslovakia where he must engineer the kidnap of a dying man. But first he finds himself leaping from a moving train, tangling with an amourous blonde and trying to act convincing as the key speaker at a Nazi rally.

Nobody ever called Jerry Broadfield a saint, but he was an (almost) honest cop. Then one day he took off his badge and ratted on nearly every crooked cop on the NYPD. He was a hero--until someone set him up. Now Matt Scudder is on the case and has no idea how dirty it will get. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

While on his first caper, Bernie Rhodenbarr comes across a dead body in the bedroom which keeps him on the run until he can figure out who set him up and why.