by Admin | Aug 7, 2011 | LB's Afterthoughts, Reviews
Block’s reminiscences are just as well-written and entertaining as his fiction, and even if you haven’t read all the books he’s talking about in this collection (I certainly haven’t, although I’ll probably get around to most of them...
by Admin | Aug 4, 2011 | News, Reviews
Others, like Lawrence Block, would rather go where-ever their muse takes them, regardless of whether it makes the most commercial sense or disappoints some of their fans (I am sure there are scores of readers who wish he’d do nothing but write Scudder and...
by LB | Aug 4, 2011 | Bernie Rhodenbarr, Books
You’d think I’d be grateful. In 1977 I published Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, the novel that introduced one Bernard Grimes Rhodenbarr to an unsuspecting public. Over the years I was to write nine more books about Bernie, the most recent of which is The Burglar on the...
by Admin | Aug 2, 2011 | Jill Emerson, Reviews
Mr. Block doesn’t write so much as paint. His words are so vivid I could see every single scene clear as day, so visceral I felt sick, so darkly funny I laughed out loud. Click here to read the post
by Admin | Jul 31, 2011 | Likes to Read
In 1957-8 I was working at a literary agency and writing short stories for magazines like Manhunt and Trapped and Guilty. I was reading widely in the field, for pleasure as well as education, and the New York Mercantile Library was a great source of out-of-print crime...
by Admin | Jul 29, 2011 | Likes to Read
Jalfieri’s comment tilted me toward baseball stories. I was in the process of ePubbing “Almost Perfect” and had made these observations in the online introduction to the story: “My own favorite baseball stories are all novels. Bernard...
by Admin | Jul 29, 2011 | Likes to Read
A brilliant writer who wrote too little and died too young. Much of his work is science fiction (Mockingbird, The Man Who Fell to Earth) but I’m fondest of his contemporary novels. The Queen’s Gambit is a personal favorite, and I’m about due to...
by Admin | Jul 29, 2011 | In Collaboration with Donald Westlake, Likes to Read
It can’t be much of a secret that he and I were best friends for many years. I’ve written extensively about Don, and supplied introductions for three of his Richard Stark novels, http://tinyurl.com/6amscsv, Comeback and Backflash. Of course I recommend...
by Admin | Jul 29, 2011 | Likes to Read
You’d think from this list that I was a big fan of historical novels, but mostly I’m not. They have to be terrific. Thomas Flanagan wrote three, all set in Ireland, and they’re better than terrific; they’re Literature. The Year of the French is...
by Admin | Jul 29, 2011 | Likes to Read
Well, I’ve just broken my own word, because I’m happy to say that Jeff Shaara is very much alive. But how to mention The Killer Angels, his father’s wonderful novel of Gettysburg, without citing the son who bookended that work with Gods and...
