Sarah Weinman had some lovely things to say about THE CRIME OF OUR LIVES in The Crime Lady.
That I’m recommending this book should not surprise, because here, as in so much of his work, is this innate engaging quality that all born storytellers have. But it is another in my “nerd book” recommendations because the pleasure is in spending time, by proxy, with the writers Block admires, envies (Evan Hunter for both), dishes dirt on (no wonder the daughter of Al Nussbaum, a larger-than-life figure who can never be written up enough, took issue with Block’s piece on him, though I agree he should have written that portion), or wishes he had known what really made them tick (Charles Willeford). My fake quibble is I wish Block had written about Lawrence Blochman because it would have amused me. My half-quibble is that I wish he’d written more on female writers, especially as his Mary Higgins Clark piece was very good. My real quibble is it wasn’t long enough. Which of course, is no quibble at all.
