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Whew, what a week! It’s been seven days since A Walk Among the Tombstones opened in the US and the UK and indeed throughout most of the world, and the reviews keep flooding in—from the media, and also from folks who paid their own way in and have been sharing their enthusiasm ever since on Facebook and Twitter, in blog posts and emails, and by what’s always the most important element, old-fashioned word of mouth.

The film industry pays a lot of attention to the box office figures for the opening weekend, and AWATT’s were not high enough to get a sequel greenlighted. (Greenlit? Whatever.) My own hope, which I’m optimist enough to regard as realistic, is that this Movie For Grownups will prove itself where it matters most—in the hearts and minds of its audience. A friend saw it the other night in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and reports that a near-full house burst into applause at the end. “You rarely see that many people in the middle of the week,” she said, “and they never applaud.”

Now that’s the sort of thing that can make a sequel happen, and that’s what all of us want—Scott Frank, Liam Neeson, and—duh—Your Humble Servant. Will it happen? Well, time will tell. Doesn’t it always?

Before I move on to that speedy vehicle I mentioned in the header, I need to let you know about the poster shown above—and tell you how to get one of your own. I managed to lay hands on a small supply of full-size AWATT posters (27″ x 40″) and lobby cards (11″ x 17″) and we’re offering them for sale—signed, natch—in LB’s eBay Bookstore.

The large posters are priced at $24.99, with free shipping to US addresses—but I’m afraid we can’t ship these out of the country. The lobby cards are $19.99 with free shipping to US addresses, and I’m pleased to say that we CAN fill international orders for these…although the shipping charges, by International Priority Mail, are on the high side.

We have 40 of each, and there’s not much chance we’ll be able to replenish our supply, so if you want a poster or a lobby card, what you don’t want to do is wait. One to a customer on these, please.

(“Um, would it be okay for me to order one of each? One poster and one lobby card?” “Well, uh, I never thought of that. Gimme a minute…Okay, I guess that’d be all right.”)

Let’s move on—to The Getaway Car, a collection of non-fiction by Donald E. Westlake just out in trade paperback and ebook from University of Chicago Press. (UCP also publishes those handsome editions of Westlake’s Parker novels, written under his pen name of Richard Stark.)

Don and I were the best of friends for half a century, and it was my pleasure to provide a foreword for the new book. It’s a wonderful collection—the man never wrote a clumsy sentence or a charmless page—and a substantial extract from his unpublished autobiography is worth the book’s price several times over.

I’m pleased to recommend it to your attention—and, if you’re able to be in or near New York this Monday, September 29, you can pay that attention up close and personal at The Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren Street in lower Manhattan. I’ll be there, along with UCP’s Levi Stahl, who did a magnificent job of sorting through Don’s files and, to quote from my own foreword, “separating the best of the wheat from the rest of the wheat—Don didn’t do chaff.” Also on hand will be Abby Adams Westlake, and after the three of us have run out of things to say, we’ll happily sign your copies of The Getaway Car.

Things should get underway around 7pm, though you might want to arrive earlier to get a seat. And if you can’t be there, and want a signed book, that’s easy. Call the store at (800) 352-2840 and tell Ian I sent you.

And that’s all I’ve got. If you’ve taken A Walk Among the Tombstones, and if you’d like to see Liam reprise his role in a sequel, get out there and tell everybody—word of mouth begins with you. And if you haven’t seen the movie yet, well, hop to it!

Cheers,

PS: As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might find it of interest. And, if you’ve received the newsletter in that fashion from a friend and would like your own subscription, that’s easily arranged; a blank email to lawbloc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line will get the job done.LB’s Bookstore on eBay
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