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Tag Archives: lawrence block
Killing Castro, by Lawrence Block
A large piece of the Hard Case Crime series has been reprints of older, “lost” stories written by famous authors. They have almost always been entertaining reads, even if the quality hasn’t been consistent with the writers’ better-known works. The … Continue reading
The Girl With the Long Green Heart, by Lawrence Block
Discovering the Hard Case Crime imprint has led me toward the early work of a few widely-known crime authors, including those of Lawrence Block. I’ve found the early Block novels variable in quality, but usually interesting for the characters and … Continue reading
Sinner Man, by Lawrence Block
The last book I reviewed reached a sort of philosophical climax when the two major protagonists, father and son, confronted each other about their willingness, as Emperors of their people, to commit evil acts in service of the greater good. The … Continue reading
After the First Death, by Lawrence Block
One of the two famous repeating characters in Lawrence Block’s fiction, the detective Matthew Scudder, is featured in eighteen books. He is a character enriched by a collection of evolving strengths and faults, not the least being his alcoholism. Block … Continue reading
October reads – a list
I stocked up on some quick-to-read crime fiction this month, with plenty of Hard Case Crime volumes and a couple books out of the Parker series. It seems I stumbled across some below-average examples of both: Westlake definitely created a … Continue reading
A Diet of Treacle by Lawrence Block
For the most part, reading the early books of famed crime writer Lawrence Block have been low-risk, entertaining tasks. I often see prototypes of characters later written into the Matthew Scudder series, but the plots have been consistently clear and … Continue reading
Two unpleasant titles from Hard Case Crime
No sooner do I praise Hard Case Crime for being having consistently entertaining titles in their back-catalog than I come across a pair of books overstuffed with gratuitous violence. I understand that the genre has its lurid side – steeped … Continue reading
Posted in books, crime fiction, list
Tagged david schow, guns, hard case crime, lawrence block
6 Comments
September reads – a list
This is a list of the month’s reading experiences, with a sentence or two about each.
Five More Books from Hard Case Crime
Continuing the tour into the Hard Case Crime catalogue, we have five more crime novels, including two from Lawrence Block that almost bookend his entire career:
Posted in books, crime fiction, list
Tagged daniel boyd, hard case crime, james m cain, lawrence block, robert silverberg
7 Comments
Five Books from Hard Case Crime
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been dipping into the genre of crime fiction – the blanket term I’ll use to cover noir, mystery, and police procedural stories. I started with a few Jim Thompson paperbacks and the two fantastic … Continue reading
Posted in books, crime fiction, list
Tagged books about games, hard case crime, lawrence block, robert bloch, russell atwood
12 Comments