- Welcome to FictionDB, Guest
- | My Account
- | Help
Lawrence Block
Full Series List in Order
A Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery
1 - Burglars Can't Be Choosers (1977)2 - The Burglar in the Closet (1978)
3 - The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (Sep-1979)
4 - The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza (1980)
5 - The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (1983)
6 - The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams (May-1994)
7 - The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart (Jul-1996)
8 - The Burglar in the Library (Jul-1997)
9 - The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis (Apr-1999)
10 - The Burglar in the Rye (Jul-1999)
11 - The Burglar on the Prowl (Mar-2004)
12 - The Burglar in Short Order (Mar-2020)
13 - The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown (Oct-2022)
A Chip Harrison Mystery
0.5 - Death of the Mallory Queen (Dec-1999)1 - No Score (1970)
2 - Chip Harrison Scores Again (1971)
3 - Make Out with Murder (1974)
4 - The Topless Tulip Caper (1975)
4.5 - As Dark As Christmas Gets (Oct-2010)
An Evan Tanner Mystery
1 - The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep (1966)2 - The Canceled Czech (1966)
3 - Tanner's Twelve Swingers (1967)
4 - Two for Tanner (1967)
5 - Here Comes a Hero (1968)
6 - Tanner's Tiger (1968)
7 - Me Tanner, You Jane (1970)
8 - Tanner on Ice (Jul-1998)
9 - Tanner's Virgin (May-2005)
10 - The Scoreless Thai (Aug-2007)
John Keller
1 - Hit Man (Feb-1998)2 - Hit List (Nov-2000)
3 - Hit Parade (Jul-2006)
4 - Hit and Run (Jul-2008)
5 - Hit Me (Feb-2013)
Kit Tolliver
1 - If You Can't Stand the Heat (Jul-2013)2 - Rude Awakening (Jul-2013)
3 - You Can Call Me Lucky (Jul-2013)
4 - Clean Slate (Aug-2011)
5 - Waitress Wanted (Jul-2013)
6 - Jilling (Jul-2013)
7 - Conjugal Rites (Jul-2013)
8 - One Kind Favor I Ask of You (Jul-2013)
9 - Don't Get in the Car (Jul-2013)
10 - Fun with Brady and Angelica (Jul-2013)
11 - Zeroing In (Jul-2013)
12 - Unfinished Business (Jul-2013)
A Matthew Scudder Mystery
1 - The Sins of the Fathers (1976)2 - In the Midst of Death (1976)
3 - Time to Murder and Create (1977)
4 - A Stab in the Dark (1978)
5 - Eight Million Ways to Die (1982)
6 - Sometimes They Bite (Jul-1983)
7 - Like a Lamb to Slaughter (1984)
7.5 - Let's Get Lost (Oct-2000)
8 - When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (1986)
9 - Out on the Cutting Edge (Oct-1989)
10 - A Ticket to the Boneyard (Sep-1990)
11 - A Dance at the Slaughterhouse (Sep-1991)
12 - A Walk Among the Tombstones (Nov-1992)
13 - The Devil Knows You're Dead (Nov-1993)
14 - Some Days You Get the Bear (Apr-1993)
15 - A Long Line of Dead Men (Oct-1994)
16 - Even the Wicked (Feb-1997)
17 - Everybody Dies (Oct-1998)
18 - Hope to Die (Oct-2001)
19 - All the Flowers Are Dying (Mar-2005)
20 - A Drop of the Hard Stuff (May-2011)
Multi-Author Series List
Famous Characters: Batman
Batman's Helpers (Sep-1999)Book List in Order: 198 titles
-
Death Pulls a Double Cross
- 1961
- / Suspense
-
New York City private investigator Ed London has a case with too few clues and a corpse with one too many identities. Soon he's in too deep, with both the cops and the suspects closing in. In this thrilling page-turner, Block combines intricate plott...
-
Mona // Grifter's Game
- 1961
- / Suspense
-
CON MAN JOE MARLIN WAS USED TO SCORING EASY CASH OFF GULLIBLE WOMEN. But that was before he met Mona Brassard -- and found himself holding a stolen stash of raw heroin. Now Joe's got to pull off the most dangerous con of his career. One that will ...
-
Coward's Kiss
- 1961
- / Suspense
-
New York City private investigator Ed London has a case with too few clues and a corpse with one too many identities. Soon he's in too deep, with both the cops and the suspects closing in. In this thrilling page-turner, Block combines intricate plott...
-
The Girl With the Long Green Heart
- 1965
- / Mystery
-
SHE WAS EVERY MAN'S DREAM -- AND ONE MAN'S NIGHTMARE Jonny Hayden and Doug Rance had a scheme to take real estate entrepreneur Wallace Gunderman for all he was worth. But they needed a girl on the inside to make it work. Enter Evelyn Stone: G...
-
The Canceled Czech
- 1966
- / Action Adventure
-
Evan Tanner ran head-first into a piece of shrapnel in Korea, and now he can't sleep. Ever. Which can be an asset for a dedicated linguist, term paper forger, thief, lost cause enthusiast . . . Spy. Tanner takes on jobs for a covert intelligence ...
-
The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep
- 1966
- / Action Adventure
-
A WAKE-UP CALL... is the last thing that Evan Tanner needs. Champion of lost causes and beautiful women, Tanner hasn't slept a wink since the sleep center of his brain was destroyed. And with the FBI keeping tabs on him, the CIA tapping his phone,...
-
Deadly Honeymoon
- 1967
- / Suspense
-
It was a perfect setting for a honeymoon -- a charming little cabin in the isolated Pennsylvania woods. It should have been the perfect beginning to a long and happy marriage. Then five shots rang out in the quiet woods and shattered Dave and Jill Wa...
-
Tanner's Twelve Swingers
- 1967
- / Action Adventure
-
Everyone Evan meets on his trek across Eastern Europe is desperate for a one-way ticket to America … and for many of those people, he’s the only hope. There’s a subversive Yugoslavian author, a six-year-old future queen of Lithuania, and the be...
-
Two for Tanner
- 1967
- / Action Adventure
-
Evan Tanner can't sleep. Ever. Which gives him plenty of free time to get involved in lots of interesting endeavors in all sorts of exotic locales. Now Tanner's in Thailand with a partially baked plan and a butterfly net, hoping to snare a beauti...
-
-
Here Comes a Hero
- 1968
- / Action Adventure
-
The CIA, the FBI, the KGB, Interpol -- not one of the world's premier intelligence organizations knows quite what to make of Evan Michael Tanner. Is he a spy, a mercenary, a footloose adventurer, or simply a screwball sucker for hopeless causes? (A...
-
Tanner's Tiger
- 1968
- / Action Adventure
-
Evan Tanner, the thief who never sleeps, returns in a classic adventure appearing in hardcover for the first time! Tanner is well-traveled, a master of disguise and subterfuge, accustomed to navigating the hidden geography of the world's most dan...
-
After the First Death
- 1969
- / Suspense
-
It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death...
-
The Specialists
- 1969
- / Suspense
-
Albert Platt is a rotten man. Bred in the rough parts of Brooklyn, he made his name as a killer and has built a fortune from gambling, loan sharking, and the other pastimes of a standard thug. His latest gambit? Buying banks, robbing them, and collec...
-
Me Tanner, You Jane
- 1970
- / Action Adventure
-
IT’S A JUNGLE OUT THERE. Literally. At least for Evan Tanner, eternally sleepless sometime superspy, who finds himself in Africa on the trail of the AWOL ruler of tiny Mondonoland. It seems the petty despot’s gone missing, and he’s taken the s...
-
-
Chip Harrison Scores Again
- 1971
- / Private Investigator
-
The devilish Chip Harrison--young, broke, and girlless--stumbles on a discarded bus ticket and finds himself in South Carolina, where he becomes the local sheriff's protege and falls in love with a preacher's daughter....
-
Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man
- 1971
- / Suspense
-
Master mystery writer Block has dabbled in his time in many genres, and early in his career, back in 1971, he published a handful of paperback erotic novels under a pseudonym; this is one of them. He wanted, he says, to have fun with an epistolary no...
-
Make Out with Murder
- 1974
- / Private Investigator
-
Chip Harrison is settling in as assistant to detective Leo Haig. Cases are scarce for the pair because Leo will accept only those befitting a would-be world-renowned sleuth. An unfortunate turn of events gives them just such a scenario when Chip disc...
-
The Topless Tulip Caper
- 1975
- / Private Investigator
-
IT’S A CRIME That Times Square dives aren’t private investigator Chip Harrison’s usual hangouts. Then again, it’s not the usual bump-and-grind for stripper Tulip Willing either … the Treasure Chest’s star attraction and Chip’s new clie...
-
-
In the Midst of Death
- 1976
- / Private Investigator
-
Bad cop Jerry Broadfield didn't make any friends on the force when he volunteered to squeal to an ambitious d.a. about police corruption. Now he'saccused of murdering a call girl. Matthew Scudder doesn't think Broadfield's a killer, but the cops aren...
-
The Sins of the Fathers
- 1976
- / Private Investigator
-
The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer -- a minister's son -- hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's fatherhas come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in se...
-
Burglars Can't Be Choosers
- 1977
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Bernie Rhodenbarr is a personable chap,- a good neighbor, a passable poker player. His chosen profession, however, might not sit well with some. Bernie is a burglar, a good one, effortlessly lifting valuables from the not-so-well-protected abodes of ...
-
Time to Murder and Create
- 1977
- / Private Investigator
-
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 Burglar in the Closet
- 1978
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
At a routine teeth-cleaning Bernie Rhodenbarr discovers a few things. One, he's got a nasty cavity. Two, his dentist is unhappily married. Three, his dentist knows Bernie's a burglar. Seems good old Dr. Sheldrake is in need of a burglar to steal back...
-
A Stab in the Dark
- 1978
- / Private Investigator
-
Louis Pinell, the recently apprehended "Icepick Prowler," freely admits to having slain seven young women nine years ago -- but be swears it was a copycat who killed Barbara Ettinger Matthew Scudder believes him. But the trail to Ettinger's true murd...
-
The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling
- Sep-1979
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
BERNIE-THE-BOOKWORM WANTED TO BURGLE AN EASY 15 GRAND, BUT HE FOUND HIMSELF PICKING HIS WAY OUT OF MURDER! Bernie Rhodenbarr had cleaned up his act, quietly peddling books in his little store near Greenwich Village. Then one Rudyard Whe'kin walked...
-
The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza
- 1980
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Bernie and his friend Carolyn were planning to rob the lovely West Side brownstone...until they discovered they had been beaten to the punch. Fortunately, the first burglars left behind some decent goods...emerald earrings, a Piaget watch--and a valu...
-
Eight Million Ways to Die
- 1982
- / Private Investigator
-
Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also -- and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alco...
-
-
-
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian
- 1983
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Antiquarian book dealer Bernie Rhodenbarr jumps at the chance to appraise wealthy Gordon Onderdonk's private library. Not only will the assignment earn him a little extra cash, it will put him inside one of the most luxurious apartment buildings in t...
-
-
Sometimes They Bite
- Jul-1983
- / Private Investigator
-
They make not look dangerous, but look again. And listen closely, as an unwelcomed visitor shares terrifying secrets with a stranger at an isolated fishing hole. Observe two men who concoct a convoluted Hitchcockian murder pot, only to discover death...
-
Like a Lamb to Slaughter
- 1984
- / Private Investigator
-
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, multip...
-
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
- 1986
- / Private Investigator
-
In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he'll need to change his...
-
The Triumph of Evil
- Jul-1986
- / Suspense
-
A sinister plan to take over a nation calls for the assassination of five key political figures. One man with a gun is enough for the job--a man whose sole life function is to kill. His name is Miles Dorn, and his story will not be easily forgotten....
-
-
You Could Call It Murder
- Mar-1987
- / Suspense
-
A missing person case brings private eye Roy Markham to the remote winterbound 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 black...
-
Random Walk
- Sep-1988
- / Suspense
-
“Every now and then someone comes up to me at a speech or signing and says one of the two things. “I’ve liked all of your books.” I’ll be told ‘but there is one I couldn’t make heads or tails out of’. Or just the opposite: “I’ve ...
-
Out on the Cutting Edge
- Oct-1989
- / Private Investigator
-
It isn't called Hell's Kitchen for nothing--a gritty landscape of dark doorways and dirty alleys inhabited by crack addicts and homeless. A sleaze-and-terror playground lorded over by Mickey Ballou, the bloodstained Butcher Boy. Ex-cop, ex-boozer, ex...
-
-
A Ticket to the Boneyard
- Sep-1990
- / Private Investigator
-
Twelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate eno...
-
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
- Sep-1991
- / Private Investigator
-
The police can't prove that socialite Richard Thurman arranged the rape, torture and murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife. The dead woman's brother thinks Matthew Scudder can. During his ongoing battle with the bottle, ex-cop ex-boozer Scudder left...
-
A Walk Among the Tombstones
- Nov-1992
- / Private Investigator
-
A ruthless, ingenious pair of entrepreneurial monsters is preying on the loved ones of those who live outside the law. Though he has no love for drug dealers and poison peddlers, ex-cop-turned-p.i. Matthew Scudder now must help them put two thrill-ki...
-
Someday I'll Plant More Walnut Trees
- 1993
- / Mystery
-
When plotting a murder (figuratively speaking), the mystery writer has at hand any number of M.O.'s including such tried and true conventions as the locked room, the unbreakable alibi, the double bluff, the mistaken identity, and many others. Indeed,...
-
Some Days You Get the Bear
- Apr-1993
- / Private Investigator
-
The bear is on the prowl in many different guises. He may be the master thief stealing into Graceland, an intense young passenger experimenting in terror, or a psychiatrist haunted by his patient's nightmare. Or maybe he's beautiful, lethal woman i...
-
The Devil Knows You're Dead
- Nov-1993
- / Private Investigator
-
A deranged derelict, a crazed Vietnam vet, has been arrested for gunning down successful young lawyer Glenn Holtzmann at a corner phone booth on Eleventh Avenue -- and the suspect's brother wants p.i. Matthew Scudder to prove the madman innocent. But...
-
Such Men Are Dangerous
- Nov-1993
- / Suspense
-
Once such man is Paul Kavanagh, an ex-Green Beret with nothing but time on his hands … until he gets an offer to steal a shipment of tactical nuclear weapons from the U.S. government … and finds himself a partner, George Dattner, who has the cold...
-
The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams
- May-1994
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Bernie Rhodenbarr is trying to make an honest living, but when his new landlord raises the rent to an astronomical sum, there's only one thing left for a reformed burglar to do. On his first night back on the job, Bernie finds not only a stash of...
-
A Long Line of Dead Men
- Oct-1994
- / Private Investigator
-
An ancient brotherhood meets annually in the back room of a swank Manhattan restuarant, a fraternity created in secret to celebrate life by celebrating its dead. But the past three decades have not been kind to the Club of 31. Matthew Scudder -- ex-c...
-
By the Dawn's Early Light
- Oct-1994
- / Suspense
-
Three short stories feature New York private eye Matt Scudder while the fourth has bookseller/burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr visiting Graceland to find Elvis. The cases are interesting because they don't focus on typical crimes, opting instead to look at ...
-
-
-
After Hours
- Feb-1995
- / Mystery
-
Whether you are a fan of Matt Scudder or Bernie Rhodenbarr, whether you know Lawrence Block as the best living writer about New York or the most versatile of crime novelists, this is the book you have been waiting for. Block talks to mystery connoiss...
-
-
The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart
- Jul-1996
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Even burglars fall in love, and in this case, it's Bernie doing the falling, with the lovely and alluring Ilona. Night after night, sharing popcorn in the flickering shadow of a Bogie movie, Bernie finds himself tongue-tied - sometimes literally. It ...
-
Spider, Spin Me a Web
- Jul-1996
- / General Fiction
-
The craft of writing is a lot like spinning a web: You take threads and weave them skillfully together, and only you know where the intricate network of twists and turns begin and how it will end. Now, with Lawrence Block’s expert advice you can le...
-
A Blow For Freedom
- Nov-1996
- / Mystery
-
No hit-or-miss anthology, this first-rate collection of 25 contemporary mysteries offers a cross-section view of the American detective, suspense and mystery short-story worlds. Gorman, editor of Mystery Scene, gathers the works of such masters as To...
-
Even the Wicked
- Feb-1997
- / Private Investigator
-
Matthew Scudder knows that justice is an elusive commodity in the big city, where a harmless man can be shot dead in a public place criminals fly free through holes in a tattered legal system. But now a vigilante is roaming among the millions, execut...
-
The Burglar in the Library
- Jul-1997
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Bernie Rhodenbarr, burglar extraordinaire and bookseller ordinaire, has left New York City to spend a wintry weekend at a cozy New England inn famed for its quaint atmosphere and, not coincidentally, its rare books. And there is no book rarer than th...
-
How Far It Could Go
- Nov-1997
- / Mystery
-
Joining together for a good cause brings out the best in today's top mystery and suspense writers! For this marvelously entertaining anthology, these outstanding contributors rose to a unique literary challenge: each penned a tale that ingeniously fe...
-
-
Tanner on Ice
- Jul-1998
- / Action Adventure
-
Cold War superspy Evan Tanner lost the ability to sleep on a battlefield in Korea. So where the heck has he been since the 70’s? Frozen. Cryogenically. A Tanner-sicle. Which he never thought would happen when he walked into a basement in Union Cit...
-
Everybody Dies
- Oct-1998
- / Private Investigator
-
Matt Scudder is finally leading a comfortable life. The crime rate's down and the stock market's up. Gentrification's prettying-up the old neighborhood. The New York streets don't look so mean anymore. Then all hell breaks loose. Scudder quickl...
-
The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis
- Apr-1999
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Between 1977 and 1983, I wrote and published five books about the lighthearted and lightfingered Bernard Grimes Rhodenbarr, with his secondhand bookstore and his dogwashing buddy, Carolyn. It was 1994 before a sixth Burglar book came along, but by th...
-
Death Cruise: Crime Stories on the Open Seas
- May-1999
- / Mystery
-
Death Cruise"": Crime Stories on the Open Sea, edited by Lawrence Block, is a collection of murder mysteries with settings aboard cruise ships and written by several members of the International Association of Crime Writers, including Agatha Christie...
-
The Burglar in the Rye
- Jul-1999
- / Amateur Sleuth
-
Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller by day, burglar by night, is on the prowl again. Pretty Alice Cottrell has hired him to infiltrate the crumbling old Paddington Hotel and steal back the letters of reclusive author Gulliver Fairborn from his once-upon-a-...
-
Batman's Helpers
- Sep-1999
- / Suspense
-
I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11...
-
Death of the Mallory Queen
- Dec-1999
- / Mystery
-
Follow Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee as he investigates rumors of witchcraft in the steamy Southwest. Join Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan when she looks into a suspicious house fire in Baltimore. Compare the detecting tactics of Maxine O'Callaghan's pione...
-
A Rare and Radiant Mother
- Apr-2000
- / General Fiction
-
Released in time for Mother's Day, this collection of twelve true stories of motherhood celebrates the special bond between mother and son in works by Eric Jerome Dickey, Eileen Goudge, Peter Straub, Faye Kellerman, Diana Gabaldon, Lawrence Block, St...
-
Opening Shots: Favorite Mystery and Crime Writers Share Their First Published Stories
- Oct-2000
- / Mystery
-
This collection of first stories published by prominent mystery and crime writers includes their recollections of the paths the stories followed. Writers include John Harvey, Susan Isaacs, Peter Robinson, and more....
-
Let's Get Lost
- Oct-2000
- / Mystery
-
I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11...
-
Speaking of Greed: Stories of Envious Desire
- Sep-2001
- / Mystery
-
The second volume in the Seven Deadly Sins Series, Speaking of Greed is a collection of short stories on the destructive deadly sin known as greed. In addition to being the title of this anthology, Speaking of Greed"" is also the title of Lawrence Bl...
-
Hope to Die
- Oct-2001
- / Private Investigator
-
The city caught its collective breath when upscale couple Byrne and Susan Hollander were slaughtered in a brutal home invasion. Now, a few days later, the killers themselves have turned up dead behind the locked door of a Brooklyn hellhole -- one app...
-
Opening Shots - Vol II: More Great Mystery and Crime Writers Share Their First Published Stories
- Oct-2001
- / Mystery
-
This second volume of Opening Shots is a collection of twenty-three first stories published by prominent mystery and crime writers. Some of these offerings are remarkably mature, professional work. Others are more obviously early works, before the wr...
-
A Moment of Wrong Thinking
- Jul-2002
- / Suspense
-
After a night out with friends, Matthew Scudder is reminded of an enigmatic case he had while still working as uniformed policeman. The case in question involves the suicide of a devout Catholic man in front of his wife and children … or was it...
-
Enough Rope
- Aug-2002
- / Suspense
-
Enough Rope, a collection of superb stories, establishes the extraordinary skill, power, and versatility of contemporary Grand Master Lawrence Block. Block's beloved series characters are on hand, including ex-cop Matt Scudder, bookselling burglar...
-
Small Town
- Jan-2003
- / Suspense
-
In this dazzlingly constructed novel, Lawrence Block reveals the secret at the heart of the Big Apple. His glorious metropolis is really a small town, filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations, fears, disappointments, and tri...
-
Cinderella Sims
- Mar-2003
- / Suspense
-
Ted Lindsay settles for a numbing routine while he heals from a painful marital breakup. Then he meets a woman who can make him forget his ex-wife, and life is once again filled with desire and passion. Cinderella Jones is on the run from a gang that...
-
Blood On Their Hands
- Jul-2003
- / Mystery
-
VIGILANTE? VICTIM? VILLAIN? Where is your breaking point? Would you defy the law in pursuit of justice? How far would you have to be pushed before you got…blood on your hands? Nineteen gripping crime and mystery stories reveal the transgressions or...
-
The Burglar on the Prowl
- Mar-2004
- / Mystery
-
"Burglary is, I should point out, not a career I would recommend for anyone. The fact that I evidently can't give it up doesn't mean I'm not well aware of the disagreeably sordid nature of what I do." Bernie Rhodenbarr A philosophical yet practic...
-
All the Flowers Are Dying
- Mar-2005
- / Private Investigator
-
Scudder, a complex character who has grown and aged in real time, confronts the implacable challenge of mortality. But he must also tackle a determined, relentless, and icily inhuman adversary, perhaps the most unforgettable villain Block has ever cr...
-
Tanner's Virgin
- May-2005
- / Action Adventure
-
The CIA, the FBI, the KGB, Interpol -- not one of the world's premier intelligence organizations knows quite what to make of Evan Michael Tanner. Is he a spy, a mercenary, a footloose adventurer, or simply a screwball sucker for hopeless causes? (A...
-
Not Comin' Home to You
- Oct-2005
- / Suspense
-
A gripping account of the actual murders that inspired the highly acclaimed film, Badlands. He is Jimmie John Hall, “free and white and twenty-two”. Her name is Betty Dienhardt, plain, friendless, and oppressed by a bleak home life. In each oth...
-
Hit Parade
- Jul-2006
- / Suspense
-
John Keller is everyone's favorite hit man: a new kind of hero for a new, uncertain age. He's cool. Reliable. A real pro: the hit man's hit man. The inconvenient wife, the aging sports star, the business partner, the retiree with a substantial legacy...
-
Transgressions
- Aug-2006
- / Suspense
-
"Keller's Adjustment," by Lawrence Block: Block returns to everyone's favorite hitman, Keller, from his bestsellers The Hit Man and The Hit List. In the Aftermath of 9/11, Keller is questioning his life and the choices he's made, dealing out philosop...
-
Lucky at Cards
- Feb-2007
- / Suspense
-
AT CARDS AND WITH WOMEN, BILL MAYNARD KNEW HOW TO CHEAT On the mend after getting run out of Chicago, professional cardsharp Bill Maynard is hungry for some action -- but not nearly as hungry as Joyce Rogers, the tantalizing wife of Bill's latest ...
-
The Scoreless Thai
- Aug-2007
- / Action Adventure
-
Evan Tanner can't sleep. Ever. Which gives him plenty of free time to get involved in lots of interesting endeavors in all sorts of exotic locales. Now Tanner's in Thailand with a partially baked plan and a butterfly net, hoping to snare a beauti...
-
A Diet of Treacle
- Jan-2008
- / Suspense
-
Anita Carbone was a good girl--and it bored her. That's why she took the long subway ride down to Greenwich Village, home of the Beats and the stoners, home to every kind of misfit and dropout and free spirit you could imagine. It was where she m...
-
-
Hit and Run
- Jul-2008
- / Suspense
-
Keller's a hit man. For years now he's had places to go and people to kill. But enough is enough. He's got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he he...
-
One Night Stands and Lost Weekends
- Nov-2008
- / Suspense
-
In the era before he created moody private investigator Matthew Scudder, burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, sleepless spy Evan Tanner, and the amiable hit man Keller--and years before his first Edgar Award--a young writer named Lawrence Block submitted a sto...
-
Killing Castro
- Jan-2009
- / Suspense
-
There were five of them, each prepared to kill, each with his own reasons for accepting what might well be a suicide mission. The pay? $20,000 apiece. The mission? Find a way into Cuba and kill Castro. This breathtaking thriller, originally publi...
-
Masters of Noir: Volume Four
- Sep-2010
- / General Fiction
-
This anthology features some of the most famous authors writing at the peak of their careers! Volume four of Master of Noir has the following ten great stories: THE PICKPOCKET by MICKEY SPILLANE, I DON'T FOOL AROUND by LAWRENCE BLOCK, MAN WITH A SHIV...
-
As Dark As Christmas Gets
- Oct-2010
- / Thriller
-
Each year, for the past seventeen years, Otto Penzler, owner of the legendary Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, has commissioned an original story by a leading mystery writer. The requirements were that it be a mystery/ crime/suspense story, that...
-
-
-
-
Grifter's Game
- Jan-2011
- / Thriller
-
Con man Joe Marlin was used to scoring easy cash off beautiful women. But that was before he met Mona Brassard and found himself facing the most dangerous con of his career, one that will leave him either a killer or a corpse. "...
-
-
-
Passport to Peril
- Jan-2011
- / Thriller
-
A thriller loaded with international intrigue from mystery master Lawrence Block Struggling folksinger Ellen Cameron can’t believe her luck. Not only is the State Department sponsoring her trip to West Berlin, but her agent has arranged for her ...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
A Drop of the Hard Stuff
- May-2011
- / Mystery
-
Grandmaster Lawrence Block brings his greatest character, Matthew Scudder, back into action in his most personal case. Matthew Scudder is finally on the straight and narrow when he runs into "High-Low" Jack Ellery, a childhood friend from the Bron...
-
L.A. Noire
- Jun-2011
- / Mystery
-
This collection of short fiction expands on the world of a groundbreaking achievement in storytelling: Rockstar Games' interactive crime thriller L.A. Noire. 1940s Hollywood, murder, deception and mystery take center stage as readers reintroduce them...
-
Terrible Tommy Terhune
- Jul-2011
- / General Fiction
-
“Terrible Tommy Terhune” came about because Otto Penzler wanted a tennis story for an anthology he was preparing. I thought about it, and found myself drawn to one of the sport’s brightest lights, blessed with talent and cursed with an ungovern...
-
A Vision in White
- Jul-2011
- / General Fiction
-
“A Vision in White” has a wonderful history. Otto Penzler invited me to contribute a tennis story to an anthology, and I wrote one, but by the time Murder is My Racquet was published, I’d already included the story in my omnibus collection, En...
-
Almost Perfect
- Jul-2011
- / General Fiction
-
“Almost Perfect” is a baseball story. It was written at the invitation of Otto Penzler, who wanted it for an anthology -- but he didn’t get to publish it. Alice K. Turner, as incisive a reader as I’ve ever known, was Playboy’s Fiction Edito...
-
A Bad Night for Burglars
- Aug-2011
- / General Fiction
-
“A Bad Night for Burglars” was written sometime in the fall of 1975, probably not much more than six months before I began work on Bernie Rhodenbarr’s debut in Burglars Can’t Be Choosers. I didn’t have the short story consciously in mind w...
-
Like a Thief in the Night
- Aug-2011
- / General Fiction
-
“Like a Thief in the Night” is a Bernie Rhodenbarr short story that’s probably entirely unknown to most of Bernie’s fans. Not only does it lack the word burglar in the title, but Bernie’s not the story’s viewpoint character. It’s told e...
-
Clean Slate
in Warriors 3- Aug-2011
- / Fantasy
-
From George R. R. Martin's Introduction to Warriors:
"People have been telling stories about warriors for as long as they have been telling stories. Since Homer first sang the wrath of Achilles and the ancient Sumerians set down their tales...
-
The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke
- Sep-2011
- / Mystery
-
“The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke” features Bernie Rhodenbarr, the lighthearted and lightfingered hero of ten mystery novels. You’ll note that it bears a joint byline. Lynne Wood Block, my frequent companion, came up with the basic idea and did ...
-
Getting Off
- Sep-2011
- / Mystery
-
SO THIS GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR... ...and when she walks out there's a man with her. She goes to bed with him, and she likes that part. Then she kills him, and she likes that even better. On her way out, she cleans out his wallet. She keeps moving,...
-
Keller in Dallas
- Sep-2011
- / Mystery
-
This novella continues the story of Keller, after the wistful stamp-collecting hit man retired in New Orleans at the end of Hit & Run. A phone call and an economic downturn is all it takes to put him back in business.Keller in Dallas, a Kindle bestse...
-
The Night And The Music
- Oct-2011
- / Mystery
-
Lawrence Block’s 17 Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world -- along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). And it’s Matt Scudder who...
-
Generally Speaking
- Dec-2011
- / General Fiction
-
In the summer of 2009, award-winning novelist Lawrence Block began contributing a monthly column to Linn’s Stamp News, America’s leading philatelic publication. A collector as a boy and young man, Block had returned to the hobby in the 1990s. Bef...
-
69 Barrow Street
- Jul-2012
- / Thriller
-
Two innocents fall prey to a woman whose beauty bewitches -- and destroys Ralph Lambert hates Stella nearly as much as he loves her. A painter with talent but no ambition, Ralph was adrift in his bohemian Manhattan life when the statuesque blonde ...
-
Strange Embrace
- Jul-2012
- / Thriller
-
When his leading lady winds up dead, a Broadway producer goes searching for a different kind of hit In just a few hours, Johnny Lane’s newest Broadway creation begins previews, and he cannot find his leading lady. Elaine is a nobody, but his sho...
-
-
Collecting Ackermans
- May-2013
- / Thriller
-
In the fall of 1976 I moved back to New York after a brief stretch in L.A. I got a small apartment on Bleecker and Sullivan, in Greenwich Village; my ex-wife and kids lived at Houston and Sixth, just a stone’s throw away if you were a major league ...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
If You Can't Stand the Heat
- Jul-2013
- / Thriller
-
In 2005, Johnny Temple of Akashic Books chose me to edit an anthology of new dark stories set in Manhattan. Manhattan Noir was duly published the following year. Besides soliciting and selecting stories, my duties included writing both an overall int...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The Burglar Takes a Cat
- Sep-2013
- / Mystery
-
I began writing about Bernie Rhodenbarr in 1977, in Burglars Can't Be Choosers, and he evolved as the series grew. In the third volume, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, he acquired a secondhand bookstore (Barnegat Books) and a best friend (Car...
-
Catch and Release
- Oct-2013
- / Mystery
-
The Master Returns--With Never-Before-Collected Tales of Murder and Desire 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 s...
-
Borderline
- May-2014
- / Thriller
-
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 gambl...
-
Defender of the Innocent
- Oct-2014
- / Mystery
-
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 ho...
-
The Crime of Our Lives
- Apr-2015
- / Suspense
-
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 Brow...
-
A Keller Sampler
- Apr-2015
- / Mystery
-
Keller, the Urban Lonely Guy of assassins, is arguably MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block's most compelling character -- and a guilty pleasure for readers throughout the world. Says the Washington Post, "Fast, somber, funny. Does Block succeed in making...
-
Have a NYC 4: New York Short Stories
- May-2015
- / Mystery
-
Famed detective and mystery writer Lawrence Block (A Walk Among the Tombstones, 8 Million Ways to Die) takes the helm as guest editor for DARK CITY LIGHTS, the fourth edition of the Have a NYC series. Twenty-three thrilling, hilarious and poig...
-
Out the Window
- Jun-2015
- / Suspense
-
"I love the Matthew Scudder series, and I love short stories."--Otto Penzler, Los Angeles Times, Ten Most Wanted Books of 2011Lawrence Block’s 17 Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world -- along with a bevy of awa...
-
A Candle for the Bag Lady
- Jul-2015
- / Suspense
-
I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11...
-
The Merciful Angel of Death
- Jul-2015
- / Suspense
-
"I love the Matthew Scudder series, and I love short stories." --Otto Penzler, Los Angeles Times, Ten Most Wanted Books of 2011 Lawrence Block’s 17 Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world -- along with a bevy of a...
-
The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes
- Sep-2015
- / Thriller
-
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 hu...
-
Looking for David
- Sep-2015
- / Suspense
-
I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11...
-
One Last Night at Grogan's
- Sep-2015
- / Suspense
-
I began writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s. The first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, appeared in 1975, and A Drop of the Hard Stuff -- the 17th and most recent -- was published in 2011. Over the years Scudder has also been featured in 11...
-
Not Comin'home to You
- Feb-2016
- / Thriller
-
“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 o...
-
21 Gay Street
- Jun-2016
- / General Fiction
-
When Joyce Kendall arrives in New York, fresh out of Clifton College in Iowa, she has a job and an apartment waiting for her. The job’s as a first reader for Armageddon Publications. The apartment’s at 21 Gay Street, and the small Federal-period ...
-
The Adulterers
- Jun-2016
- / General Fiction
-
Ah, yes. THE ADULTERATORS, the thrilling account of a couple of desperadoes whose violation of the Pure Food and Drug Act brought a nauseated nation to its knees, and -- Oh, it’s THE ADULTERERS? Oh. Well, never mind.THE ADULTERERS was my second eff...
-
Born to Be Bad
- Jun-2016
- / General Fiction
-
When I decided to reissue my early books in the Collection of Classic Erotica, I did so without realizing what I was getting myself into. I would have to read them again.Or, as in the case of BORN TO BE BAD, I’d have to read them for the first time...
-
College for Sinners
- Jun-2016
- / General Fiction
-
Young David Forrester is a sex-obsessed freshman student at Upper Manhattan’s Columbia University, although the institution remains unnamed in the book. An upperclassman shepherds him through the loss his virginity, then steers him into a club of l...
-
Four Lives at the Crossroads
- Jun-2016
- / Thriller
-
FOUR LIVES AT THE CROSSROADS is the latest addition to the Classic Crime Library...after a short stay in the Collection of Classic EroticaBack in the late 1950s and early 60s, when I was finding myself as a writer and producing a great quantity of bo...
-
-
-
-
-
Sinner Man
- Nov-2016
- / Thriller
-
LAWRENCE BLOCK'S FIRST CRIME NOVEL -- LOST FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS!
To escape punishment for a murder he didn't mean to commit, insurance man Don Barshter has to take on a new identity: Nathaniel Crowley, ferocious up-and-comer in the New York mob... -
In Sunlight or in Shadow
- Dec-2016
- / General Fiction
-
"Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers, and yet his paintings never tell a story so much as they invite viewers to find for themselves the untold stories within." ...
-
Mostly Murder Till Death
- Dec-2016
- / Mystery
-
MOSTLY MURDER Till Death This fantastic collection of eleven imaginative tales is the first in a brand-new mystery anthology series. Lawrence Block, internationally renowned New York Times bestselling author, is featured along with ten other writers ...
-
Resume Speed
- Jan-2017
- / Thriller
-
A new town, a fresh start. A chance to escape old demons. Or meet new ones.He got on the Trailways bus in Galbraith, North Dakota, booked all the way through to Spokane. But the Help Wanted sign at the diner in Cross Creek was calling his name. Soon,...
-
Keller's Fedora
- May-2017
- / Mystery
-
A NEW HAT. FOR A NEW HIT. Happily retired, living under a new name with his wife and daughter, Keller thought he was out of the murder-for-hire business. Until he got the call from his old employer, asking him to tackle the most unusual assignme...
-
Alive in Shape and Color
- Dec-2017
- / General Fiction
-
Even before Lawrence Block could rest on his laurels from In Sunlight or In Shadow, a question arose: what would he do for an encore? There is such a wealth of artists who have produced art that could trigger a literary response. Suppose each author ...
-
I Don't Fool Around
- Sep-2018
- / Mystery
-
Fischer pulled up at a curb and we got out of the car in a hurry, heading for the black Chevy with the people standing around it. The precinct cop made room for us and we went on through. As far as I was concerned, this was just a formality. I knew w...
-
-
At Home in the Dark
- Feb-2019
- / Mystery
-
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 peri...
-
From Sea to Stormy Sea
- Nov-2019
- / General Fiction
-
In the third installment of his acclaimed illustrated anthology series, master of crime fiction Lawrence Block has gathered together the best talent from popular fiction to produce an anthology of short stories based on masterpieces of American art. ...
-
The Burglar in Short Order
- Mar-2020
- / General Fiction
-
"What a treat! Catnip to Bernie disciples!" -- BooklistFour decades ago, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block introduced the world to one of his most beloved and enduring creations: Bernie Rhodenbarr, the clever, nimble-fingered s...
-
The Darkling Halls of Ivy
- Jun-2020
- / Mystery
-
In recent years, colleges and universities have become known for their trigger warnings and safe spaces--but as the 18 authors who penned stories for this powerful new anthology can tell you, there's plenty of danger still lurking behind the stolid s...
-
Dead Girl Blues
- Jun-2020
- / General Fiction
-
You might as well know this going in: Lawrence Block's new novel is not for everyone. It's recounted in journal form by its protagonist, and begins when he walks into a roadhouse outside of Bakersfield, California, and walks out with a woman. And ra...
-
Broadway Can Be Murder
- Apr-2021
- / General Fiction
-
BROADWAY CAN BE MURDER started out to be a novel based on Johnny Midnight, a TV series which everyone has long since forgotten.Except, of course, that nothing manages to be forgotten in the Internet Age. I, whose job it was to knock out 50,000 words ...
-
Collectibles
- May-2021
- / General Fiction
-
From Publishers Weekly:Standouts include Dennis Lehane's gilt-edged chiller, 'A Bostonian (in Cambridge),' in which a wealthy collector of letters of abandonment falls prey to wily blackmailers, and Joe R. Lansdale's 'The Skull Collector,' a gangster...
-
The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown
- Oct-2022
- / Mystery
-
Suppose you're Bernie Rhodenbarr. You've got a dream job, running your own cozy secondhand bookstore, complete with Raffles, your caudally challenged cat. It's in Greenwich Village, and your best friend's dog grooming salon is two doors away, an...
-
Playng Games
- Jan-2023
- / Mystery
-
★ 10/31/2022One of the most impressive of the 17 crime stories involving games in this stellar anthology from MWA Grand Master Block (In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper) is Block’s own “...
-
Playing Games
- Feb-2023
- / General Fiction
-
WIN, LOSE, OR DIE.Whether it's child's play or for the highest stakes, whether we stick to the rules or cheat, we all play games — for fun, for thrills, for love or money, to prove we're the best or make an opponent knuckle under. And the games...
-
The Naked and the Deadly
- Apr-2023
- / General Fiction
-
Lawrence Block's "lost" stories, complete and uncut for the first time since their original publication!The focus and subject matter of mid-century men's adventure magazines (MAMs) could be wide-ranging, and versatile storytellers able to confidently...
-
The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder
- Jun-2023
- / General Fiction
-
Since the 1970s, Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning novels and short fiction featuring Matthew Scudder. Now, with both himself and his detective half a century older, the author found himself charged with writing a book about his protagoni...
-
Kellers Katastrophe
Jahrelang ist Keller durchs ganze Land gereist und hat Leute umgebracht.Aber jetzt reicht es ihm. Nur noch ein Auftrag – im Voraus bezahlt -, und er wird in Rente gehen. Während er in Des Moines darauf wartet, dass ihm sein Auftraggeber gr...
-
Kellers neuer Job
KELLERS NEUER JOBAm Ende von Kellers Katastrophe lebt Keller in einem großen, alten Haus im Lower Garden District des Post-Katrina New Orleans. Er hat einen neuen Namen (Nicholas Edwards), eine neue Frau (Julia) und einen neuen Beruf (Häus...
Award-Winning Books by Lawrence Block
1979 Nero Wolfe Award -- Novel
A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
1992 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- Novel
The Devil Knows You're Dead
1994 Shamus Award -- P.I. Novel
Eight Million Ways to Die
1982 Shamus Award -- P.I. Novel
