Lawrence Block

Jimmie John Hall wasn't anything until he was a killer, and Betty Dienhardt wasn't anything until she met Jimmie John Hall. When they get together, sparks fly and bullets follow. The first to go are Betty's parents, but Betty isn't bothered. She only wants to be with her man - the first person to ever make her feel special. They set off on a cross-country spree, killing for gas money and food, killing to swap their car for one the police aren't looking for. As the dragnet draws tighter, they only grow closer, riding a road that leads to death because death has surrounded them all the time. This novel derives from and was inspired by the real-life (and real death) rampage of Charles Starkweather and Caryl Fugate in 1950s Nebraska; the novel itself is set fifteen years later, and does not attempt a literal reconstruction of the original case. It's a powerful work of fiction, a penetrating look at two disturbed and disturbing individuals, and a breakneck tear across the American Midwest. Like Such Men Are Dangerous and The Triumph of Evil, it was originally published under LB's Paul Kavanagh pen name, but as soon as he could he resides all three books under his own name, and is pleased to make them available now in the Classic Crime Library.

Lawrence Block's WRITING THE NOVEL remained continuously in print since 1978. But the world of publishing has changed, and Block has expanded and updated his original text, bringing each chapter up to date and adding new material on ebooks, self-publishing, and what perils and opportunities await the new novelist--and the veteran as well. Unlike 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. Here are some chapters: #1--Why Write a Novel? #2--Deciding Which Novel to Write. #3--Read... Study... Analyze. #4--Developing Plot Ideas. #5--Developing Characters. #6--Outlining. #7--Using What You Know...and What You Don't Know. #8--Getting Started. #9--Getting It Written. #10--Snag, Dead Ends, and False Trails. #11--Matters of Style. #12--Length. #13--Rewriting. #14--Getting Published. #15--The Case for Self-Publishing. #16--The Case Against Self-publishing. #17--How to Be Your Own Publisher. #18--Doing It Again. #19--Now It's Up to You WRITING THE NOVEL FROM PLOT TO PRINT TO PIXEL is half again as long as the original version, and Lawrence Block has managed to retain all the 1978 text while bringing it up to date. As he would be the first to tell you, you don't need this book--or any other--to succeed as a novelist. But thousands of writers have found it helpful. And most of us feel we can use all the help we can get.

In the 1980s, Lawrence Block developed an 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 seminars that focused on the inner game of writing, and designed to enable participants to get out of their own way and put their best work on paper. This book was written to make the seminar available to a larger audience. Block self-published it in 1986, in an edition of 5000 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, and ever since the book's been impossible to obtain. When eBooks came around, Block arranged for HarperCollins to publish Write For Your Life in that format. But it's the sort of text one wants to be able to page through, and a printed book is just more user-friendly. In the fall of 2013, an assistant found the last box of 25 copies of the 1986 edition in a storage cupboard; Block offered them in a newsletter, and they sold out within three hours. This is the original book, with a 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 what you are and who you are.

An MWA Grand Master tells it straight: 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 manuscript arrived, and we had dinner and put the kid to bed, and I started reading. 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 same time 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.

For almost three years, novelist and short-story writer Lawrence Block's monthly column, "Generally Speaking," was one of the most popular features in Linn's Stamp News. A general collector of pre-1940 issues, Block had the entire world of stamps as his subject, and he turned in 33 columns before he decided it was time to stop. But Keller, the author's fictional character, never lost his enthusiasm for philately. A wistful and introspective killer for hire, Keller rekindled a boyhood passion for stamps at the end of Hit Man, the first of a series of books about him. Like Block, Keller collects the whole world through philately's first century. (How's that for coincidence?) And the nature of his profession gives Keller more discretionary income than Block-and a lot more money to spend on stamps. Published here for the first time is the full run of columns from Linn's, along with six selections from the Keller saga chosen for their philatelic perspective.

While he is probably best known as a novelist and short-story writer, Lawrence Block has produced a rich trove of nonfiction over the course of a sixty-year career. His instructional books for writers are leaders in the field, and his self-described pedestrian memoir, Step By Step, has found a loyal audience in the running and racewalking community. Over the years, Block has written extensively for magazines and periodicals. Generally Speaking collects his philatelic columns from Linn's Stamp News, while his extensive observations of crime fiction, along with personal glimpses of some of its foremost practitioners, have won wide acclaim in book form as The Crime of Our Lives. Hunting Buffalo With Bent Nails is what he's got left over. The title piece, originally published in American Heritage, recounts the ongoing adventure Block and his wife undertook, criss-crossing the United States and parts of Canada in their quixotic and exotic quest to find every "village, hamlet, and wide place in the road named Buffalo." Other travel tales share space with a remembrance of his mother, odes to New York, a disquisition on pen names and book tours, and, well, no end of bent nails not worth straightening. Where else will you find "Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon," an assessment of that compelling writer from a numismatic standpoint? Where else can you read about Block's collection of old subway cars? Highly recommended.

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 reader said: "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."

For fourteen years, five-time Edgar winner and MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block wrote a monthly column on fiction for Writers Digest magazine. These columns yielded four books regarded as classics: Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, Spider Spin Me a Web, The Liar's Bible...and now The Liar's Companion. Reader reviews: "This recently released treasure from award winning mystery author Lawrence Block is a welcome addition to my bookshelf. ... Block has a gift for casual gems of wisdom that stir my storytelling imagination." "No subject is off limits for Block. From lofty questions (how do writers get their ideas?) to the mundane (how many pages should you write every day?) to the personal (how often should writers exercise? how should writers budget their money?), the advice is practical, funny, and never boring. I do not have a desire to be an author, but these glimpses into the writing life fascinated me." While Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and Spider Spin Me a Web group the author's columns by topic, Block scrapped this approach when preparing The Liar's Bible and The Liar's Companion, feeling the material flowed more naturally by simply running the columns in chronological order. As Block has written, "Bible and Companion consist of my later columns, and as such they seem to me the best representation of my views on the subjects at hand. Telling Lies has always been the bestseller, perhaps because it led the way, perhaps because I'd had the good luck to stumble on a particularly good title...but I think it quite likely that Bible and Companion are the better books."

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. The author speaks: "Look, this wasn't my idea." Three or four years ago, Bill Schafer suggested that I might give some consideration to republishing a book of mine called $20 Lust, which had originally appeared under a pen name. I recalled the book he meant, but dimly; I had, after all, written it in 1960. But I didn't need to remember it all that vividly to know the answer to his suggestion." No, I told him." A little later I suggested he might want to publish a fancy edition of Mona, the first book under my own name; it had come out as a paperback original in 1961, and we could celebrate its fortieth anniversary with a nice limited edition hardcover." Bill was lukewarm to the notion, but had an alternative proposal; how about issuing a double volume, containing Mona and $20 Lust? Once again, I didn't have to do a lot of soul-searching to come up with a response." No, I told him." Time passed. Then Ed Gorman, the Sage of Cedar Rapids, used an ancient private eye novelette of mine in a pulp anthology. When it came out he sent me a copy, and, while I didn't read my novelette-I figured it was enough that I wrote the damned thing-I did read his introduction, which I found to be thoughtful and incisive and generous. I e-mailed him and told him so, and he e-mailed me back and thanked me, adding that my early work was probably better than I thought."'And, ' he added, 'I really think you ought to let Bill Schafer publish $20 Lust.'"I felt as though I'd been sucker-punched. Where the hell did that come from?" So I got in touch with Bill. 'I suppose I could at least read it, ' I said, 'except I can't, because I don't have a copy.' Three days later, a battered copy arrived in the mail. I looked at the first two pages, and I looked at the last two or three pages, and I heaved a sigh. Heaved it clear across the room, and would have heaved the book, too, but instead I hollered for my wife."'Bill Schafer wants to reprint this, ' I said."'Great, ' she said."'Not necessarily, ' I said, and explained the circumstances. 'I'd like you to read this, ' I said, 'or as much of it as you can without gagging, and then tell me it's utter crap and I'd surely destroy what little reputation I have if I consent to its republication.'"'Suppose I like it'"'Not to worry, ' I said. 'I'll sign the commitment papers, and I'll make sure they take real good care of you.'"Well, she liked it. And Bill Schafer published it, and a lot of people liked it, and my agent sold it in France, where even more people liked it. Shows what I know. And it's now my pleasure to include it in the Classic Crime Library." Cinderella Sims was originally intended to be my second crime novel for Gold Medal, to follow Grifter's Game (aka Mona). At some point along the way I lost faith in it, and wrapped it up in a hurry, and sold it to Nightstand Books. Hope y'all enjoy it "

Lawrence Block's new collection assembles seven works of fiction written over a period of sixty years. "Hard Sell," a story ghost-written under Craig Rice's name, appeared in the first issue of Ed McBain's Mystery Magazinein 1960, and features Rice's hard-drinking yet clear-thinking lawyer, John J. Malone. "Dead to the World," which appeared under a one-shot pen name in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, has been lost for years, and the story of how it was lost and found is as interesting as the story itself. The same is true of "Whatever It Takes," written over a quarter of a century ago and never submitted anywhere, because the author filed it away and forgot about it; he came upon it, dusted it off, and sent it to AHMM where it was published. "I Know How to Pick 'Em" was written for Dangerous Women, the George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology, and a holdback clause in the contract kept it out of LB's previous collections. "Autumn at the Automat" was also written for an anthology, LB's own In Sunlight or in Shadow, and won an Edgar Allan Poe award as Best Story of the Year." Gym Rat" has never appeared in print; it was ePublished as part of a Center for Fiction project. While readers have suggested the protagonist might return for further appearances, LB is doubtful. Still, he's been mistaken before." Resume Speed," the title novella, was published in hardcover (by the stellar Subterranean Press) and as a Kindle Single (by the author). Subterranean's edition is out of print and hard to come by, and the story now appears in paperback for the first time. While it was written only a couple of years ago, it has its roots in a story the author overheard perhaps 40 years ago. All of the circumstances of its origin, and a good deal more about each of these stories, may be found in LB's foreword.

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.

Ormai da anni, Keller doveva andare in giro per il paese per uccidere persone. Ma a un certo punto il momento di smettere. Ancora un ultimo lavoro - pagato in anticipo - e si ritirer . Mentre a Des Moines aspetta il via libera del cliente che lo ha assoldato, Keller sta comperando francobolli per la sua collezione in un negozio di Urbandale. In quel momento, qualcuno ammazza a colpi d'arma da fuoco il carismatico governatore dell'Ohio. Tornato al suo motel, Keller vede il volto dell'assassino sul televisore. Un volto che ha visto molto spesso. Ogni mattina. Allo specchio. Keller telefona a Dot, sua socia d'affari, a White Plains, ma nessuno risponde. bloccato nel mezzo del paese, e ogni poliziotto d'America ha appena visto la sua fotografia. La sua carta di identit e la sua carta di credito non possono pi essere usate, e ha speso quasi tutto il suo contante per acquistare quei francobolli. E adesso? Recensioni: "Un colpo da campioni.... Block piazza una micidiale doppietta di humor e di introspezione". Boston Herald"Uno dei migliori romanzi dell'estate. Block sempre un vero maestro del giallo". Chicago Sun-Times"Se vi attualmente uno scrittore di polizieschi in grado di emulare, in questo genere letterario, l'eredit di Raymond Chandler e di Dashiell Hammett, Lawrence Block". San Francisco Chronicle"Block descrive con tali minuziosi dettagli la fuga iniziale del suo improbabile eroe e il suo tentativo di acquisire una nuova identit , che il lettore resta affascinato.... All'inizio, Keller decide che questo sar il suo ultimo incarico. Possiamo solo sperare che non sia cos ". Kirkus Reviews"Vivace, divertente e pieno di suspense". Library Journal"Il caratteristico stile di Block, misto di humor e violenza, ben si adatta all'impassibile Keller.... Uno degli antieroi pi insoliti della letteratura gialla". Publishers Weekly"Le continue considerazioni ironiche di Keller e degli altri due personaggi principali vi faranno sorridere fino a farvi dolere le guance". New York Sun"Una strana e accattivante combinazione tra il surreale, il bizzarro e lo stile dei gialli 'hard boiled'. Keller ci piace sempre di pi ". San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

Keller un killer. Professionale, freddo, sicuro, competente, affidabile. Ma anche una persona complessa: riservato e solitario, gelido e spietatamente efficiente, portato alla solitudine e ai dubbi, agli incubi e al timore per la sua carriera. Il Sicario Ritorna (Hit Parade) il terzo dei cinque volumi nei quali compare." Keller, solitario per temperamento e a causa del suo lavoro, si trova bene con Dot, la sua agente. I due colleghi in affari conversano affabilmente - ma discutono della morte, a volte nei dettagli pi cruenti. Col suo humour pungente, Block segue le occupazioni del moralmente ambiguo Keller, che va in cerca di francobolli rari e costosi quando non si occupa del suo 'lavoro'. Block, vincitore di quattro premi Shamus e del premio Edgar per la letteratura poliziesca, riesce a far s che il lettore parteggi suo malgrado tanto per il killer quanto per le vittime, stravolgendo il suo abituale modo di identificazione e le sue convinzioni su ci che giusto e ci che sbagliato". (Publishers Weekly)

Keller, einsamer Gro stadtcowboy und abgebr hter Auftragskiller, hat in Kellers Konkurrent seinen zweiten gro en Auftritt. Kirkus Reviews hatte dazu Folgendes zu sagen: Nach seinem aufsehenerregenden Deb t in dem Shortstory-Zyklus Kellers Metier erf llt John Keller nun den sehnlichsten Wunsch seiner Fans und tritt in einem Roman auf. Ganz der brave B rger, geht Keller unter die Briefmarkensammler, kommt gewissenhaft seinen Pflichten als Geschworener nach und f hrt weiterhin jeden Mordauftrag mit hundertprozentiger Zuverl ssigkeit aus - selbst wenn einer seiner Auftraggeber die Taktlosigkeit besitzt, ihm ein Bild seines Opfers in Form einer Weihnachtskarte mit einem Foto seiner gesamten Familie zukommen zu lassen. Aber irgendetwas scheint nicht mit rechten Dingen zuzugehen. Nachdem Keller bei einem Auftrag in Louisville nur knapp dem Tod entronnen ist, kehrt er nach New York zur ck, um dort einen Job anzunehmen, der Z ge einer eingef gten Short Story hat. W hrend er in Tampa, Boston und den Vororten Chicagos weiterhin mit gewohnter Routine seiner T tigkeit nachgeht, findet er auch Zeit f r gelegentliche sexuelle Begegnungen mit der Goldschmiedin Maggie Griscomb und f r einen Besuch bei der Astrologin Louise Carpenter, bei dem er v llig unerwartet in Tr nen ausbricht. Zugleich kommt es bei der Erledigung seiner Auftr ge weiter zu kleinen Unstimmigkeiten, die immer mehr den Schluss nahelegen, dass er ins Visier eines anderen Auftragskillers geraten ist, der zu glauben scheint, das Land sei nicht gro genug f r sie beide. Der Leser sollte nicht die extreme Intensit t und Dichte der Keller-Stories erwarten, die aus der ironischen Gegen berstellung der todbringenden Profession des Helden und der auf die Spitze getriebenen Normalit t seiner Ansichten und seines sonstigen Lebens resultiert. Stattdessen nehmen jetzt Kellers gleicherma en ironische wie qu lend umst ndliche Gespr che mit seiner altj ngferlichen Auftraggeberin Dot in White Plains eine tragende Rolle ein. M gen diese Unterhaltungen auch wie reinstes Geschwafel anmuten, sind sie dennoch Geschwafel, dessen Wechselspiel von Banalit t und h herer Weisheit, hnlich wie bei James M. Cain und Quentin Tarantino, den besonderen Reiz dieser modernen Samuraigeschichte ausmacht. Kirkus Reviews

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.

The crime fiction canopy's a broad one, with room to give shelter to writing of all sorts, as editor Lawrence Block shows with At Home in the Dark: "Some of these stories have one or both feet planted in another genre. James Reasoner's story is a period western, Joe Lansdale's is bleakly dystopian, and Joe Hill's novelette slithers through a little doorway into another world. "And now that I've singled out those three, I suppose I should go ahead and list the rest of the gang: N. J. Ayres, Laura Benedict, Jill D. Block, Richard Chizmar, Hilary Davidson, Jim Fusilli, Elaine Kagan, Warren Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Ed Park, Nancy Pickard, Thomas Pluck, Wallace Stroby, and Duane Swierczynski. "If you're looking for a common denominator, two come to mind. They're all dark stories, with nothing cozy or comforting about them. And every last one of them packs a punch. Which is to say that they're all very much At Home in the Dark--and we can thank O. Henry, master of the surprise ending, for our title. 'Turn up the lights, ' he said on his deathbed. 'I don't want to go home in the dark.'"

One of the most highly acclaimed novelists in the crime genre, Lawrence Block is also a master of the short story, with award-winning work ranging from the macabre to the slyly comic, from heart-stopping tales of revenge to memorable explorations of lust and greed, all told in Block's unforgettable style. The sixteen stories (and one stage play ) collected here feature appearances by some of Block s most famous characters, including gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr and alcoholic private detective Matt Scudder, as well as glimpses into the minds of a rogue's gallery of frightening killers, dangerous sociopaths, crooked cops, and lost souls whose only chance to find themselves may be on the wrong side of a gun. You'll meet a compulsive hoarder whose towering piles of trash and treasures hide disturbing secrets...a beautiful young tennis star with a rather too possessive secret admirer...a dealer in stolen art who is unwilling to part with his most prized possession at any price...poker players with agendas that have nothing to do with the cards in their hands...and a catch-and-release fisherman whose preferred catch walks on two legs. Terror and passion, cruelty and vindication--it's all here, in a collection that will thrill you, scare you, and remind you why Lawrence Block is still the best there is at what he does.

Da quando fece la sua prima comparsa nel 1977 in Burglars Can't Be Choosers (Parola di Ladro, Mondadori, 1979) il ladro e libraio Bernie Rhodenbarr si guadagnato la simpatia dei lettori di polizieschi in tutto il mondo. E' stato protagonista di undici romanzi, l'ultimo dei quali The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons (Il Ladro che Contava I Cucchiai, LB ed., 2018) e i suoi fan sperano sempre di avere qualcosa in pi . Nel corso degli anni, Bernie comparso anche in quattro brevi racconti. Essi sono raccolti qua, con altri nove testi: articoli di giornali, estratti dai romanzi e altre effimere apparizioni. Bernie stato interpretato in modo memorabile da Whoopi Goldberg nel film Burglar (Affittasi Ladra, 1987) e Lawrence Block racconta qui quel curioso episodio in Il Ladro al Cinema. Inoltre, un'introduzione scritta appositamente per questa raccolta narra tutta la storia di Bernie, mentre in una nuovissima postfazione Bernie stesso ci dice che cosa pu riservare il futuro.