Lawrence Block Books

Out on the Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block

This is a city that seduces dreamers...then eats their dreams.Matthew Scudder understands the futility of his search for a longtime missing Midwestern innocent who wanted to be an actress in the vast meat-grinder called New York City. But her frantic father heard that Schudder is the best -- and now the ex-cop-turned-p.i. is scouring the hell called Hell's Kitchen looking for anything that might resemble a lead. And in this neighborhood of the lost, he's finding love -- and death -- in the worst possible places.
Summary
Matt Scudder returns in a tense mystery in which he remorselessly tracks downa young midwestern girl missing in the Big Apple.

 

 

Hope to Die : A Matthew Scudder Novel by Lawrence Block


When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

These were the dark days for Matthew Scudder. An ex-New York cop, he had drowned his career in booze. Now he was drinking away his life in a succession of seedy establishments that opened early and closed late, reduced to doing paid "favors" for the cronies who gathered with him to worship the bottle.
Now, in a sad and lonely place like so many before it, opportunity comes knocking -- a chance to help the ginmil's owner recover his stolen doctored financial records; a chance to help out a drinking buddy accused of murdering his wife. But when cases flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways -- like the nightmare images in a drunkard's delirium -- it's time for Scudder to change his priorities: to staying sober...and staying alive.
Summary
Forced to leave the New York City Police Department, Matthew Scudder lives day by day, drink by drink until his barroom cronies lure him into some nasty business that includes blackmail, double dealing, betrayal, and murder.

 

 

A Dance at the Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block

Amazon.com
Matt Scudder, the recovering alcoholic private eye from The Devil Knows You're Dead and A Ticket to the Boneyard, embarks on another descent into the nightmarish quarters of New York, this time to investigate the sex-for-sale industry. Hired by the brother of an heiress to investigate her rape and murder, Scudder tails her husband to a boxing match and notices another man whom he saw on video a few months earlier on a different case involving a snuff film. As Scudder calls on old friends for assistance and tours New York's dark physical and social landscapes, Block masterfully builds the pressure that leads Scudder to the violent resolution in this winner of the 1992 Edgar Award for best mystery novel.
Book Description
There is no accolade or major mystery award that has not already been bestowed upon Lawrence Block. His acclaimed crime novels are asintelligent, provocative, and emotionally complex as they are nerve-tighteningly intense. And perhaps the most respected of his myriad works are the Matthew Scudder books -- masterworks of suspenseful invention featuring a remarkable protagonist rich in conscience and character, with all the flaws that his humanity entails. This is the detective novel as high art.A Dance At The Slaughterhouse

In Matt Scudder's mind, money, power, and position elevate nobody above morality and the law. Now the ex-cop and unlicensed p.i. has been hired to prove that socialite Richard Thurman orchestrated the brutal murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife. During Scudder's hard drinking years, he left a piece of his soul on every seedy corner of the Big Apple. But this case is more depraved and more potentially devastating than anything he experienced while floundering in the urban depths. Because this investigation is leading Scudder on a frightening grand tour of New York's sex-for-sale underworld -- where an innocent young life is simply a commodity to be bought and perverted ... and then destroyed.
Summary
Hired to link the rape, torture, and murder of a pregnant socialite to her husband, Richard Thurman, ex-cop and former alcoholic Matthew Scudder begins a terrifying tour of New York's snuff film industry.

 

 

A Ticket to the Bone Yard by Lawrence Block

Matthew Scudder, ex-cop and recovering alcoholic, has finally gtten his life together. Suddenly, trouble arrives in the form of and old enemy, psychotic James Leo Motley, who is brutally murdering anyone close to Scudder--with Scudder's name on the list!.

 

 

The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block

In this city, there is little sense and no rules. Those who fly the highest often come crashing down the hardest--like successful young Glenn Holtzmann, randomly blown away by a deranged derelict at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue. Unlicensed P.I. Matt Scudder thinks Holtzmann was simply in the wrong place at the worst time. Others think differently--like Thomas Sadecki, brother of the crazed Vietnam vet accused of the murder, who wants Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But no one is truly innocent in this unmerciful metropolis--including Matther Scudder, whose curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart...and to passions and revelations that could destroy everything he loves. In this city, there is little sense and no rules. Those who fly the highest often come crashing down the hardest--like successful young Glenn Holtzmann, randomly blown away by a deranged derelict at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue. Unlicensed P.I. Matt Scudder thinks Holtzmann was simply in the wrong place at the worst time. Others think differently--like Thomas Sadecki, brother of the crazed Vietnam vet accused of the murder, who wants Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But no one is truly innocent in this unmerciful metropolis--including Matther Scudder, whose curiosity and dedication are leading him to dark, unexplored places in his own heart...and to passions and revelations that could destroy everything he loves.

 

 

Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block

Tormented by the slaying of the hooker who turned to him for help just before her death, cop-turned-private eye Matthew Scudder begins an investigation into the woman's past that reveals secrets that could be deadly for him.

 

The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling by Lawrence Block

Bernie Rhodenbarr tries to go legit by opening a second-hand bookstore, but he still can't resist that which he does best--burglary! Someone's willing to pay him handsomely for what seems to be an easy job: the theft of a rare Kipling edition. But as his contact turns up dead and the cops are out to throw the book at him, Bernie has to use all the tricks of his illicit trade to make sure this little situation has a happy ending!

 

Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block

Small-time stoolie, Jake " The Spinner" Jablon, made a lot of new enemies when he switched careers, from informer to blackmailer. And the more "clients", he figured, the more money -- and more people eager to see him dead. So no one is surprised when the pigeon is found floating in the East River with his skull bashed in. And what's worse, no one cares -- except Matthew Scudder. The ex-cop-turned-private-eye is no conscioscientous avenging angel.

 

Everybody Dies by Lawrence Block

Amazon.com
You would think that by the 14th novel in a series, an author might become a bit bored with his characters, a bit sloppy in his writing. Thankfully, Lawrence Block is no such writer. Matt Scudder, in his 14th appearance, is as sharp and entertaining as he is in such mysteries as Eight Million Ways to Die and A Dance at the Slaughterhouse. Scudder is one of the few dicks out there with a fully fleshed-out personality; he's not insensitive to the mayhem around him, and his fears are well founded and realistic. After all, as the title boldly states, we live in a world where everybody dies.
Settled into married life, sober, and finally a legit private eye (the state granted his license), Scudder is prepared to become a respectable high-priced detective working for New York City lawyers. But when his old buddy, Mick Ballou, comes to him because two of his runners end up murdered, Scudder finds himself sinking back into the muck of the underworld. While dodging thugs who are out to put a stop to his investigation, Scudder must figure out who has it in for Ballou.
The writing in this novel is elegant--equally supple in describing the gibbous moon as it is in sorting out Scudder's feelings on the murder of a close friend, or when recounting a rather gory eye plucking. The dialogue is snappy and true to life. Lawrence Block once again proves he's worthy of the title Grand Master of Mystery. So be sure to set aside a chunk of time before you sit down to read this novel, because you're not going to be able to tear yourself away.

Synopsis
Matt Scudder learns firsthand that Manhattan's new clean-scrubbed reputation is a facade when he agrees to help his best friend, a flamboyant Hell's Kitchen criminal, and faces mean streets as vicious as ever.

 

The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian : A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery by Lawrence Block

Amazon.com
If the only side of Lawrence Block you know is the dark and gloomy Matt Scudder books, such as the noir classic When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, then you might be surprised to hear that he's also one of the most delightfully droll writers in the mystery business.
"I hurried uptown and changed into chinos and a short-sleeved shirt that would have been an Alligator except that the embroidered device on the breast was not that reptile but a bird in flight. I guess it was supposed to be a swallow, either winging its way back to Capistrano or not quite making a summer, because the brand name was Swallowtail. It had never quite caught on and I can understand why." That's Bernie Rhodenbarr, used book dealer and gentleman burglar, making a literary fashion statement in this latest return to print of one of Block's best books about him.
As with the other entries in this admirable series--The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, Burglars Can't Be Choosers--Block manages to be very amusing, moderately suspenseful, and impressively erudite all at the same time. The plot is a complicated tangle of double-cross and deceit surrounding the theft of a valuable painting and two murders. Mondrian isn't the only artist being framed here: Bernie has to use all of his skills--as burglar, lover, and art expert--to prove his (relative) innocence.

 

 

A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block

Perhaps more than any other author in the field, Lawrence Block has reinvented contemporary noir fiction--instilling the classic private eye novel with new life and literary depth, while retaining its raw power, grit, suspense, and surprise. For his efforts he has received multiple Edgar, Shamus, and Maltese Falcon Awards--wining virtually every honor the genre has to bestow--and has been named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America P.I. Matthew Scudder remains among Block's most memorable and exquisitely developed creations--a flawed and complex protagonist whose stark, unassailable humanity is both his greatest weakness and strength.

A new breed of entrepreneurial monster has set up shop in the big city. Ruthless, ingenious murderers, they prey on the loved ones of those who live outside the law--knowing full well that criminals will never run to the police no matter how brutal the threat. So other avenues for justice must be explored--which is where ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder comes in. Scudder has no love for the drug dealers and poison peddlers who now need his help. Nevertheless, he is determined to do whatever it takes to put an elusive pair of thrill-kill extortionists our of business. For they are using the innocent to fuel their terrible enterprise.A new breed of entrepreneurial monster has set up shop in the big city. Ruthless, ingenious murderers, they prey on the loved ones of those who live outside the law--knowing full well that criminals will never run to the police no matter how brutal the threat. So other avenues for justice must be explored--which is where ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder comes in. Scudder has no love for the drug dealers and poison peddlers who now need his help. Nevertheless, he is determined to do whatever it takes to put an elusive pair of thrill-kill extortionists out of business. For they are using the innocent to fuel their terrible enterprise.
Summary
When a heroin kingpin's wife is kidnapped by some bad hombres, he haggles over the ransom and receives her back in pieces, leaving Scudder to track down the killers. By the author of A Dance at the Slaughterhouse.

 

Even the Wicked by Lawrence Block

Amazon.com
P.I. Matthew Scudder's got two murders on his mind. How did a serial killer who announces his victims in advance get past the bodyguards of a famous defense attorney--bodyguards recommended by Scudder himself? And who benefits from the murder of an ex-junkie already half-dead of AIDS? As in Block's twelve other Scudder novels, the answers are both surprising and surprisingly neat, and Scudder's introspective ordinary-guy persona never palls.
Summary
A vigilante serial killer, named "the Will of the People", is prowling New York, ruthlessly executing evil-doers whom he feels deserve to die. His m.o. is to alert the media before he strikes. So far, his victims have included a child molester, a Mafia don, a violent anti-abortionist, and a racial hate monger. But when "Will" targets a noted lawyer, Matthew Scudder is called upon to stop a frighteningly efficient killer who can do the seemingly impossible.

 

Hit Man by Lawrence Block

Amazon.com
A man known only as Keller is thinking about Samuel Johnson's famous quote that "'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'... If you looked at it objectively, he had to admit, then he was probably a scoundrel himself. He didn't feel much like a scoundrel. He felt like your basic New York single guy, living alone, eating out or bringing home takeout, schlepping his wash to the Laundromat, doing the Times crossword with his morning coffee... There were eight million stories in the naked city, most of them not very interesting, and his was one of them. Except that every once in a while he got a phone call from a man in White Plains. And packed a bag and caught a plane and killed somebody. Hard to argue the point. Man behaves like that, he's a scoundrel. Case closed." But Lawrence Block is such a delightfully subtle writer, one of the true masters of the mystery genre, that the case is far from closed. In this beautifully linked collection of short stories, we gradually put together such a complete picture of Keller that we don't so much forgive him his occupation as consider it just one more part of his humanity. After watching Keller take on cases that baffle and anger him into actions that fellow members of his hit-man union might well call unprofessional, we're eager to join him as he goes through a spectacularly unsuccessful analysis and gets fooled by a devious intelligence agent. We miss the dog he acquires and loses, along with its attractive walker. Like Richard Stark's Parker, Keller makes us think the unthinkable about criminals: that they might be the guys next door--or even us, under different pressures. For a small selection of the many Blocks in paperback, try Coward's Kiss, A Long Line of Dead Men, The Sins of the Fathers, Such Men Are Dangerous, and especially When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
Book Description
Keller is your basic urban Lonely Guy. He makes a decent wage, lives in a nice apartment. Works the crossword puzzle. Watches a little TV. Until the phone rings and he packs a suitcase, gets on a plane, flies halfway across the country...and kills somebody. It's a living. But is it a life? Keller's not sure. He goes to a shrink, but it doesn't work out the way he planned. He gets a dog, he gets a girlfriend. He gets along.
Summary
Meet Killer, the coldly efficient, yet decidedly human hit man. Your basic Urban Lonely Guy. He makes a decent wage, lives in a nice apartment. Until the phone rings and he gets on a plane and flies halfway across the country and kills somebody. It's a living. But is it a life? Keller's not sure. He goes to a shrink. He gets a dog, he gets a girlfriend. He gets along. There's no one like Keller.

 

The Burglar in the Closet by Lawrence Block

Hired by his dentist to steal back some valuable diamonds from his ex-wife, Bernie Rhodenbarr is nearly discovered and hides in the closet, only to become the witness to the woman's murder.



The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams by Lawrence Block

The sixth "Bernie Rhodenbarr" mystery finds the reformed burglar returning to crime when his landlord raises the rent and entangled in a frame-up involving baseball cards, a lot of cash, and murder.

 

The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza :
A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery by Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block's classic Bernie Rhodenbarr capers continue with this long-unavailable adventure for the Greenwich Village bookseller who can't resist a little breaking-and-entering now and then. Serendipity is a curious thing. It's just good luck that Bernie knows that Hank and Wanda Colcannon's Chelsea apartment is empty while they're out of town. But it's lousy luck that somebody beats him to the job and ransacks the place before he arrives. But then again, it's great luck that Bernie turns up a rare 1913 V-nickel. He knows that it's valuable, but when he takes it to Abel Crowe, his local fence, and finds out that the five-cent piece is worth a cool half a mil, well that's just stupefying. Abel has a soft spot for Bernie, who's always bringing him rare books on philosophy, including the writings of Baruch Spinoza, so he agrees to handle the hot coin. But the next day the cops come looking for Bernie. It seems the Colcannons came home early and surprised an intruder. Hank is badly beaten, and Wanda, unfortunately is dead. So, it turns out, is Abel. And the coin is missing. The whole thing stinks of a set-up. All the cops care about is how easy it will be to pin the whole thing on Bernie. All Bernie can do is turn for help from his brand new friend, name of Spinoza.

 

 

The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block

The hooker was young, pretty... and ead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again -- and that's where Matthew Scudder comes in. But this assignement carries the unmistakeable stench of sleaze and perversion, luring ex-cop-turned-investigator Scudder into a sordid world of phony religion and murderous lust where children must die for their parents' mosy secret, unspeakable sins.
Summary
Matthew Scudder is hired by the father of murder victim Wendy Hanniford--supposedly slashed to death by a minister's son who commits suicide in jail--to investigate after police close the case, in a chilling mystery featuring an introduction by Stephen King.

 

Like a Lamb to the Slaughter: Stories by Lawrence Block

They are poor little lambs who have lost their way: a murderous madman feigning madness; a beautiful woman, dangerous to look at and lethal to touch; a shy little boy quietly testing his newfound power to destroy. In this ingenious collection, multiple award-winning mystery author Lawrence Block leads us into dark, unprotected fields, where human sheep gather in terror of predatory wolves. And we follow willingly-through a hayseed's bloody mid-life crisis, into the explosive heart of a vengeful CPA:s account-balancing...and onto the streets with p.i. Matthew Scudder, as he spends an inheritance from a baglady to hunt down the old woman's killer.
Summary
A collection of short mysteries features such heroes as private investigator Matthew Scudder and dapper defense attorney Martin Ehrengraf and follows such events as a homeless woman's murder and a hayseed's bloody mid-life crisis.

 

Other Books by Lawrence Block


In the Midst of Death

The Burglar in the Rye : A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery

The Burglar in the Library : A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery

The Canceled Czech : An Evan Tanner Mystery

The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis

A Stab in the Dark

The Canceled Czech (An Evan Tanner Mystery)

Hit List

The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart

Some Days You Get the Bear

The Topless Tulip Caper : A Chip Harrison Novel

The Girl With the Long Green Heart

The Devil Knows You're Dead

Tanner on Ice : An Evan Tanner Novel (Tanner Mystery Series)

Not Comin' Home to You

The Sins of the Fathers

Coward's Kiss (Five Star Standard Print Mystery Series)

Ariel : A Novel

The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep

The Canceled Czech (Armchair Detective Library)

Everybody Dies

Out on the Cutting Edge

Hit Man

Eight Million Ways to Die

The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling

In the Midst of Death

The Burglar in the Rye

No Score (Chip Harrison Mystery)

A Long Line of Dead Men

Chip Harrison Scores Again

The Burglar in the Closet

Make Out With Murder

A Long Line of Dead Men

The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep : An Evan Tanner Mystery

Mona

A Dance at the Slaughterhouse

Tanner's 12 Swingers

In the Midst of Death


About the Author
Lawrence Block is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and a multiple winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Maltese Falcon awards. His fifty-plus books include the Matthew Scudder novels, the most recent being the critically acclaimed Everybody Dies, and the New York Times bestseller Hit Man. Mr. Block is a devout New Yorker who spends much of his time traveling.

 


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