Lawrence Block

"You may rape the bride..." David and Jill Wade wanted a properly traditional start to their marriage. For openers, they decided to delay its consummation until after the ceremony. They planned a perfect honeymoon at a secluded lakeside resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Joe Carroll, the guest in the cabin next door, seemed friendly enough. They took his dinner suggestion, then returned to their cabin and prepared to retire-until a noise alerted them, and they went to the porch and watched a group of men descend on Joe Carroll's cabin. They dragged him out at gunpoint, then executed him in cold blood. And Jill screamed... The men heard her, rushed the Wade's cabin. They took their turns with Jill. Then they left. And the newlyweds barely considered reporting the violation to the police. Instead, with only a name and a few bare clues to steer them, they hunted down the men who'd done the awful deed and the crime boss who'd given them their orders. DEADLY HONEYMOON was Lawrence Block's first hardcover novel. It's a powerful tale of revenge, and of a man and woman far more closely bound by their shared mission than they would have been by a more ordinary honeymoon. THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

Alex Penn wakes up in a squalid Times Square hotel room. This is what he sees when he finally opens his eyes: "The floor was a sea of blood. A body floated upon this ocean. A girl-black hair, staring blue eyes, bloodless lips. Naked. Dead. Her throat slashed deeply." It had to be a dream. It had to, had to be a dream. It was not a dream. It was not a dream at all." I've done it again, I thought. Sweet Jesus, I've done it again." Years before, Alex Penn woke up in similar circumstances, called the police, went to prison. A technicality freed him-and now there's been another drunken blackout, another dead streetwalker. But something nags at his memory, and he begins to suspect some other hand wielded the knife. And if he didn't murder this woman, maybe he didn't kill the other one, either. So he runs, adrift in an urban jungle, hoping to steer clear of the police long enough to solve the crime. AFTER THE FIRST DEATH is sure to appeal to fans of David Goodis and Cornell Woolrich. And, with its gritty New York setting and its undercurrent of alcoholism, it can be considered a precursor to Lawrence Block's iconic Matthew Scudder series. THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

"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." That's the product description for Blackstone Audio's excellent rendition of You Could Call It Murder, expertly voiced by Peter Berkrot, and we could leave it at that-but there's an interesting backstory to the book, and the Classic Crime Library seems a good place to share it with you. In 1961, Lawrence Block was living in New York and earning a living writing Midcentury Erotica and crime fiction. He'd just sold his first book under his own name, Grifter's Game, to Gold Medal Books. (They insisted on calling it Mona, but the original title's been restored by Hard Case Crime.) His agent got him an assignment to write a tie-in paperback novel for Belmont Books, linked to the TV series Markham, starring Ray Milland. The book turned out well, and the young writer's agent felt it was too good to be a Belmont tie-in. Knox Burger agreed, and Block changed the name of the hero from Roy Markham to Ed London, and Gold Medal published the book as Death Pulls a Doublecross. (Another unfortunate title; you'll find the book in the Classic Crime Library with the author's original title, Coward's Kiss.)But that left Block owing Belmont a book. You Could Call It Murder is what he wrote for them, and it turned out fairly nicely as well, but his agent sent it to Belmont all the same, where they published it as Markham: The Case of the Pornographic Photos. (By the time it came out-surprise surprise-the TV series was canceled.)Is everything clear? THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art.

Die S nden der V ter stellt Matthew Scudder vor, jenen New Yorker Privatdetektiv, der von Liam Neeson in Ruhet in Frieden auf der Leinwand verk rpert wurde. Eine junge Prostituierte wurde get tet und der mutma liche M rder hat sich in seiner Gef ngniszelle erh ngt. Auf der Suche nach Antworten wendet sich der Vater des toten M dchens an Scudder. Dieser erste Band der preisgekr nten Reihe wurde urspr nglich 1976 ver ffentlicht, die deutsche Ausgabe ist aber bereits seit vielen Jahren vergriffen. Der Roman wurde nun f r heutige Leser von Stefan Mommertz neu bersetzt, einschlie lich einer 1991 verfassten Einf hrung von Stephen King. Darin weist King darauf hin, dass Scudder zwar den romantischen Untert nen der Gattung entspricht, er aber genauso viel von Dorian Grey wie von Travis McGee hat. King schreibt weiter: Block hat den Teil des Mythos, der ebenso Klischee wie Wunscherf llung ist, beiseitegelegt und ihn durch etwas ersetzt, das sehr viel glaubw rdiger ist. Das Ergebnis ist eine Reihe von B chern, die genau genommen ein einziges sind - eine urban-alkoholkranke moderne Version der >Pilgerreise

Here's CHIP HARRISON-the second series character created by Lawrence Block, bestselling author of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES.. Chip's second adventure in CHIP HARRISON SCORES AGAIN begins when our lad finds a discarded wallet holding a bus ticket to Bordentown, South Carolina. Instead of cashing it in, he uses it-and winds up as an assistant manager in the hamlet's finest bordello. (Well, it's also the only bordello.) And that's just the beginning. While the virginity that plagued him in NO SCORE is no longer an issue, our Lecher in the Wry retains the irresistible innocence that makes him such delightful company.

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. Haig's client in THE TOPLESS TULIP CAPER is Thelma Wolinsky, known to Leo Haig as a distinguished amateur breeder of tropical fish, and to the world as topless dancer Tulip Willing. It sounds like just the sort of case for Chip, doesn't it? You bet it does.

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.

Here's CHIP HARRISON-the second series character created by Lawrence Block, bestselling author of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES... Chip's debut in NO SCORE opens with the lad orphaned and cast adrift by the loathsome headmaster of his prep school. Thus unfolds a picaresque tale in which young Chip travels far and wide, determined to make his way in the world and somehow shrug off the awful cloak of virginity. This earnest and endearing Lecher in the Wry finds work as an assistant to Gregor the Pavement Photographer (whose wife keeps him forever on Third Base, and won't let him steal home) and employment as a Termite Salesman. He falls in and out of love, and, well, you'll see.

"WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL is like having a pocket-sized mentor you can consult any time. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy."-Alex Kourvo, Writing Slices Lawrence Block is almost as well known for his instructional books for writers and his 14 years as a monthly contributor to "Writers Digest," as he is as a bestselling author and MWA Grand Master. WRITING THE NOVEL, his first book for writers, has remained continuously in print since its original appearance in 1978. Recently revised and expanded, each chapter has been updated, and Block has included essential information on digital publishing, self-publishing, how to get published, and the perils-and opportunities-awaiting debut and veteran novelists alike. Unlike so many advice-givers, Block doesn't tell you what book to write, or the one and only way to write it. He holds that every novel is different, and so is every novelist; his aim is to give you the tools to enable you to find your own way. You will find chapters on: deciding which novel to write developing plot ideas and charactersoutlining rewriting getting publishedself-publishing and so much more In this revised edition, WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL, Lawrence Block retains all his original text while creating a writer's guide that's fifty percent longer than previous editions. As he would be the first to tell you, you don't need this book-or any other-to succeed as a novelist. Still, thousands of writers have found it most helpful-and who couldn't use a little extra help?

In the depths of her blue eyes, he glimpsed...murder. 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?

The long-awaited eleventh novel in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series.

An MWA Grand Master tells it straight: Fredric Brown: "When I read Murder Can Be Fun, I had a bottle ofbourbon on the table and every time Brown's hero took a drink, I had a snort myself. This is a hazardous undertaking when in the company of Brown's characters, and, I've been given to understand, would have been just as dangerous around the author himself. By the time the book was finished, so was I." Raymond Chandler: "You have to wonder how he got it so right. He spent a lot of time in the house-working, reading, writing letters. He saw to his wife, who required a lot of attention in her later years. And when he did get out, you wouldn't find him walking the mean streets. La Jolla, it must be noted, was never much for mean streets." Evan Hunter: "In his mid-seventies, after a couple of heart attacks, an aneurysm, and a siege of cancer that had led to the removal of his larynx, Evan wrote Alice in Jeopardy. And went to work right away on Becca in Jeopardy, with every intention of working his way through the alphabet. Don't you love it? Here's a man with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, and he's perfectly comfortable launching a twenty-six book series." Donald E. Westlake's Memory: "Here's the point: Don's manuscriptarrived, and we had dinner and put the kid to bed, and I startedreading. And my wife went to bed, and I stayed up reading, and after a while I forgot I was having a heart attack, and just kept reading until I finished the book around dawn. And somewhere along the way I became aware that my friend Don, who'd written a couple of mysteries and some science fiction and his fair share of soft-core erotica, had just produced a great novel." Charles Willeford: "Can a self-diagnosed sociopath be at the sametime an intensely moral person? Can one be a sociopath, virtually unaware of socially prescribed morality, and yet be consumed with the desire to do the right thing? That strikes me as a spot-on description of just about every character Willeford ever wrote. How could he come up with characters like that? My God, how could he help it?" An MWA Grand Master and a multiple winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Maltese Falcon awards, Lawrence Block's reflections and observations come from over a half century as a writer of bestselling crime fiction. Several of his novels have been filmed, most recently A Walk Among the Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson. While he's best known for his novels and short fiction, along with his books on the craft of writing, that's not all he's written. THE CRIME OF OUR LIVES collects his observations and personal reminiscences of the crime fiction field and some of its leading practitioners. He has a lot to say, and he says it here in convincing and entertaining fashion

The Criminal Defense Lawyer. Redefined. Martin H. Ehrengraf, dapper and diabolical, may be Lawrence Block's darkest creation. He's the defense attorney who never sees the inside of a courtroom, because all his clients are innocent--no matter how guilty they may seem. Some even believe themselves to be guilty: they remember pulling the trigger, or wiring the dynamite to their spouse's car, or holding the bloody blade. But things have a way of working out when Martin Ehrengraf is on the case. Evidence turns up, incriminating someone else. More murders occur, with the same M. O. And the gate of the jail cell opens, and the accused walks free. But be careful--hiring Martin Ehrengraf comes with a price. A high price, one that comes due even if he appears to have done nothing on your behalf. And you'd better be prepared to pay... Here at last are the complete exploits of Martin Ehrengraf: a dozen delicious tales of vice and villainy including one--''The Ehrengraf Fandango''--that is appearing for the first time anywhere. It's a twelve-course meal of sinister surprises, exquisitely prepared and served simmering hot by the greatest living master of mystery fiction. Says Publishers Weekly: "The clients of Mephistophelean DA Martin Ehrengraf are always innocent, even when they recall committing murder, as shown in this collection of 12 dark, twisted tales from MWA Grand Master Block (Catch and Release). The urbane lawyer charges only if clients are exonerated-and they always are, though his hand is seldom seen. Apparent crimes of passion prove to be serial killings in "The Ehrengraf Defense," which introduces the tie he wears to celebrate victories. Clients who try to renege on payment discover he's a dangerous ally whose sinister ingenuity works as effectively against as for them, as miserly Millard Ravenstock learns in "The Ehrengraf Settlement." In "The Ehrengraf Obligation," the attorney represents penniless poet William Telliford, whose work he admires, but when freedom diminishes William's creative output, the poet finds himself back in prison for murder. While Ehrengraf initially seems amoral, he follows his own code, far from socially sanctioned mores but sacred to him. Sophisticated, surprising, charming, and relentless, he's a compelling antihero." And Thomas Gaughan in Booklist adds: "Block's stellar career has given crime lovers a number of different protagonists: honor-bound PI Matt Scudder, gentleman thief Bernie Rhodenbarr, and Keller, the stamp-collecting hit man, to name just three. Defense attorney Martin Ehrengraf, though less known, is notably darker than Block's other main characters. Ehrengraf represents people in deep trouble with the law and facing damning evidence against them. He works on a contingency basis: his fee is earned only if his client is freed from jail. His fees are exorbitant and he rarely appears in court, but, somehow, when Ehrengraf takes a case, new evidence appears that exonerates his client. All but one of these 12 stories appeared in magazines, beginning in the late 1970s. Ehrengraf is the star of each, a dandy who oozes self-regard, a charming sociopath who will murder to free his client and collect his fee. He never really cops to his methods, except to icily hint at them should a client balk at paying."

THE SCORCHING PULP NOVEL BY LAWRENCE BLOCK, AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 50 YEARS! On the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. You'll meet MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with... MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds... LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by... CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda... and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging! This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment--and of lines that were never meant to be crossed.

On the border between Texas and Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. MARTY - the gambler who rolls the dice on a night with... MEG - the divorcee who seeks excitement and finds... LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by... CASSIE - the redhead with her own agenda...and WEAVER - the killer with a razor in his pocket...

The do-it-yourself edition of bestselling author Lawrence Block's groundbreaking seminar for writers In the 1980s, bestselling author Lawrence Block developed an innovative, interactional seminar that adapted elements of the human potential movement, specifically for writers. For several years, he and his wife, Lynne, traveled the country conducting workshops that focused on the inner game of writing and were designed to enable participants to get out of their own way and put their best work on paper. Written to ensure the course material would be made available to the largest audience possible-and at a lower price-Block self-published this book in 1986, in a print run of 5,000 copies, which sold out in short order. A few years later, he stopped offering the seminar, having tired of the guru trip and preferring to concentrate on his own writing. For years afterward, WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE was nearly impossible to obtain. When ebooks became popular, Block arranged for HarperCollins to publish WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE in its digital format. Still, he continued to hear from fans mourning the print edition. This is, after all, the sort of text one wants to be able to page through, making the printed book more user-friendly. In the fall of 2013, an assistant found the last box of the 1986 edition in a storage cupboard; Block offered them in a newsletter, and all 25 copies sold out within three hours. This is the original text, with a new foreword bringing it up to date. With the book, as with the seminar, it doesn't matter at all where you are in your writing career or what kind of writing you do. That's all beside the point. WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE is about making the best out of who you are and where you are.

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...

The explosive fifth book in the Keller series from the master of classic American crime.