Review: Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block

Cover of Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block

We are mostly lucky to live in an era where self-publishing is easy. While I’ve read (or tried to read) some self-published titles that I wish I hadn’t, I’ve also read some that, while they certainly could have used an editor’s touch, were decent to quite good books that almost certainly wouldn’t have been […]

Book review: A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block (Matthew Scudder #4)

Nine years ago, the Icepick Prowler terrorized the boroughs of New York City. Eight murders were attributed to him, but when, in a lucky break, he is caught, he only confesses to seven of the killings, and has an unshakable alibi for the eighth.

The eighth victim was a young woman named Barbara Ettinger. […]

Book review (take two): In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block (Matthew Scudder #3)

Note: I wrote a rather perfunctory review of this years back. One problem then was I that I listened to the audio book, so was unable to flip back and forth. I’m reading the Scudder series in order at the moment and revisited this one, so here is an updated review. It’s more negative. […]

Review: Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block (Matthew Scudder #2)

Small-time crook “Spinner” Jablon hits it big running a blackmail racket. He’s got dirt on three people, who become the three prime suspects when he’s found in the river. Matthew Scudder had been given the evidence by Spinner, just in case that happened.

Why Scudder?: “Why I think you’ll follow through,” says Spinner, “is […]

Movie review: A Walk Among the Tombstones

Cover of the Hard Case Crime movie tie-in edition

A Walk Among the Tombstones, as many of you no doubt already know, is based on the novel by Lawrence Block, the tenth in his series about alcoholic/recovering alcoholic (depending on what book) private investigator Matthew Scudder. Scudder is unlicensed, occasionally doing “favors” for […]

Trailer for A Walk Among the Tombstones

I’m a bit late to the party on this, so maybe you’ve seen it already, but below is the trailer to the upcoming film adaptation of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder novel, A Walk Among the Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson as Scudder. Lawrence Block has a cameo.

This is one I have not yet read, […]

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 […]

Nailing down the Westlake sleaze catalog, part II: The Midwood books (part II)

The first post in this series included the series introduction and covered the first five sleaze novels that Donald Westlake wrote for Midwood Books. This post will cover the second and final five.

Here is some backstory on Midwood from Lynn Munroe:

Harry Shorten came from the Midwood section of Brooklyn NY. […]

LB Score: Hit Man by Lawrence Block, signed first edition

NB: A version of this post also appears on Existential Ennui.

Over on Existential Ennui, I’ve been blogging on and off for a while now about some of the signed editions I’ve acquired over the past however many months. Few of the books I’ve showcased thus far have been a good fit […]

Grab-bag post: Promo for Donald Westlake e-books, Lawrence Block, Parker week at The Sindiecate

Here’s a nice two-minute promo for Donald Westlake’s e-books from Open Road/Mysterious Press, featuring Otto Penzler, Brian Garfield, Lawrence Block, and William Link (Columbo and Murder, She Wrote) speaking Westlake’s praises.

“Meet Donald Westlake”

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Open Road has released thirteen Donald Westlake titles to date, including three rare sleaze titles co-authored with […]