As you might possibly have heard, unless you’ve been trekking in Bhutan or meditating in an isolation chamber,
A Walk Among the Tombstones opens
Friday, September 19, all over the US and the UK and most of the rest of the world. (
October 15, I believe, in Australia. As late as mid-November in a couple of other countries.)
I’m preparing this newsletter in a hotel room in Los Angeles, where I came for a guest shot on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. If you set up your TiVo to record it, well, a presidential address jostled the TV schedule, and you may have missed it. We can’t have that, can we? So just click the link and you get to see it all—except for the film clip Craig showed, which I guess they can’t bundle in. But hey, that’s okay. You’ll see all that this coming weekend, in A Theater Near You.
The promotional campaign for the picture, and the buzz that goes with it, is beyond anything I can recall. The posters are on every subway platform in New York and, from the looks of things, every bus in London. Overseas, some of the media placement has been downright spectacuar. The film trailer’s running in theaters and turning 
up in TV commercials. I’ve been getting tons of interview requests, and, media slut that I am, I’ve been saying yes to damn near all of them.
It’s exhausting, but so what? Writing’s a wonderful life, and I wouldn’t change it for anything, but it’s rarely what you’d call exciting. For all the satisfaction of sitting in a room or hours on end in the company of figments of one’s own imagination, it doesn’t often make the heart pound and the blood race. But lately things have turned exciting, and I have to say I’m enjoying it.
So while I’m at it, let me share some news that’s also pretty exciting. I believe I mentioned—quietly, elliptically—that I wrote a book in July. As I told Craig, I went to Philadelphia, holed up in an apartment on Rittenhouse Square, and came home a month later with a book written. What I didn’t get the chance to tell him was that it’s a down-and-dirty noir thriller, characterized by my Hollywood agent as “James M. Cain on Viagra.” (Charles Ardai, who’ll be publishing the book a year from now at Hard Case Crime, might want to put that line on the cover.) The title is The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes, the setting’s a small town in Florida, an artist’s already working on the cover painting—and I can’t wait to see it. Soon as I do I’ll give y’all a sneak preview.
But let’s get back to the movie, because it’s just so much fun. One happy effect of all the billboards and bus posters is that book sales have shot skyward. The book Craig held 
up—and gave away to the studio audience—is Hard Case’s movie tie-in edition, and besides flying off the racks in airports and supermarkets, which everybody expected, it’s also having a surprisingly strong online sale. So is my trade paperback, available online or—if you want a signed copy—at our eBay bookstore. And ebooks of have been, well, spiking skyward at Kindle and Nook and pretty much everywhere. Ka-ching!
The sales are mostly A Walk Among the Tombstones—no surprise there—but like any proper rising tide, this one’s raising other boats as well, as readers drawn by the movie go on to work their way through the Scudder series. The first of the Scudder short stories, “Out the Window,” has been absolutely surging, and people who read it and like it tend to pick up the complete collection, The Night and the Music. (The story’s exclusive to Kindle, but the collection’s widely available.)
I’ve seen the movie, as I believe I mentioned, but that was nine or ten months ago, and Lynne and I can’t wait to see it again. A lot of you have asked if they’ll be filming other books in the series, and I’m not the only one who hopes so. Scott Frank, who’s done such a brilliant job as writer and director, wants to do more, and Liam Neeson would welcome another star turn as Matthew Scudder. Ultimately, it depends on the numbers. If the movie’s a big success, there’ll be more. Fingers crossed, huh?
Although it’s okay to uncross them long enough to reserve your tickets for opening weekend…
Cheers!
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Twitter: @LawrenceBlock
That interview was seriously brilliant! Mr Block, you are so funny and so quick witted you could have a permanent slot on your own TV show (or one on Craig Ferguson’s and you could talk about books!)
Thanks, Larry. I’ve been waiting for this movie for 20-something years after someone butchered “Eight Million Ways to Die.”
Imagine, making the backdrop of a Scudder movie Los Angeles, when New York City is one of the main characters, if not “THE” main character. As for Whoppie Goldberg playing Bernice, instead of Bernie, as Bobcat Goldwaithe as her partner, let’s just say my wife had to stop me from choking myself.
Hopefully, there will be more Scudder movies with Liam Neeson, who is just brilliant in everything he does.
Congratulations, Mr. Block. Sounds like a movie to make you proud. Good interview with Craig. I LOVED your purple shirt and tie, and your quiet wit is always appreciated.
Add me to the list of the many who’d like a whole series of Scudder movies. And wouldn’t Ray Winstone make a wonderfu Mick Ballou?
Maggie, you’re not the first to suggest Ray Winstone. Brendan Gleeson, too, would be a bit of all right. And for years I always liked Brian Dennehy for the part, but fear he’s aged out of it.
Hello again Mr Block! Sorry to bother you and I might be barking up the wrong tree here (woof!, woof!) but is THE GIRL WITH THE DEEP BLUE EYES a sequel to THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART? I have that in my library and plan to read it soon, now, but the thought just occurred to me and I thought that I would take sufficient liberties by asking you! Have a great day! 🙂
No, not a sequel at all, Greggorio, although the cadence of the title might suggest as much.
Ok, thanks. (Woof!)
Mr. Block, as a long time fan, since 12 reading Like a Lamb in ’84, I am very happy to see one of my favorite fictional characters get a worthy treatment in film. Thank you for all the time you have given me with your characters! I look forward to sharing many more.
Am I completely making this up, or did I read somewhere that Hit Man is being made into a movie, with a working title of Keller?
Larry Block does such a great job with Matt Scudder as his main character and I finally figured out how he does it. Block is Scudder. Well, not really. But if you look at their personalities they are so much alike it’s unbeliviable. Block identifies with Scudder in so many ways which I won’t go into. If you look at all of Block’s characters—Keller, Bernie, etc., he only identifies with Matt.
Thanks for the kind words, Jack, but I can’t agree with your conclusion. I identify with Matt, but identify no less with all my other viewpoint characters—Bernie, Keller, Evan Tanner, et. al. In fact, when Peter Straub read Hit Man, the first Keller book, he told me that it was Keller who most reminded him of me, in his musings and interior monologues.
As a reader / fan I concur with Mr Block (obviously). For example, Bernie the book seller has a strong association (love affair?) with books and you can tell that Mr Block does, too.
But is Mr Block an assassin? I think not.
Is there any hope for Keller to resurface?
Time will tell.
I must have been the one living in Bhutan as I have just discovered we have a Matt Scudder movie coming out. My question Mr Block is: Are you happy with Liam’s portrayal of Matt?. He certainly fits my image of Matt. In the clips of the film I have seen it comes across as violent but maybe I have disremembered the earlier books. I will re read it before I watch the movie. I have all the books. Big Big fan
Thanks, Roberta. I could not be happier with the film, and Liam’s dead solid perfect in the role. I think you’ll be pleased with it.