Hard Case Crime to publish lost Lawrence Block novel

This just in from our friend Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime:

Friends,

We’d been saving this for a special announcement but Amazon just beat us to the punch by posting the book on their site, so we figured we should spill the beans as well: next May we’re going to be publishing a lost pulp novel by MWA Grandmaster Lawrence Block, one that hasn’t been published in any form for more than 50 years and has never previously been acknowledged to be Block’s work.

The book is called BORDERLINE, and it’s a doozy: a violent, intense story about five lives colliding on the border between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico…the border between the right side of the law and the wrong…and the border between sanity and madness.  You can read the first chapter at http://hardcasecrime.com/books_bios.cgi?entry=bk123&type=excerpt. And you can see Michael Koelsch’s amazing cover painting – one of the very best we’ve ever had, I think – at http://hardcasecrime.com/books_bios.cgi?entry=bk123.

To avoid any possible confusion, let me note that this is NOT the new book that Lawrence Block has mentioned he just finished writing. I’ve had the privilege to read that book as well, and it’s fantastic – one of the very best he’s written in years – but it’s as different from this one as green is from red or up is from down.  To start with, that one is brand new and this one is half a century old.  That one’s coming out for Christmas this year (Larry’s self-publishing it), and BORDERLINE is coming out in time to be your favorite summer read next year.  If you’re a fan of Larry’s work, you’ll definitely want to read both.

In the meantime, check out the cover – which is so delicious it’s been chosen by Juxtapoz (the largest art magazine in the country) to be the cover image of their upcoming November issue!   (The issue also features the coolest photograph ever taken of yours truly, courtesy of the brilliant Bryan Derballa. I attach it here in a burst of unaccustomed immodesty.)

Best,

Charles