BlackHat Mystery Bookstore
Lawrence Block
 |
short profile
Evan Tanner series
|
"Dangerous thing, giving humanity the knowledge of good and evil.
And the capacity to make the wrong choice more often than not."
"People don't get to change things. Things change people once in a while, but people don't change things."
"I don't plan an awful lot in life, just as I don't plan an awful lot in my fiction."
~~ Lawrence Block
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
Block was named a Grand Master in 1994 by the Mystery Writers of America.
author website
Lawrence Block entry at Wikipedia
Lawrence Block credits {since 1967} at Internet Movie Database
browse the Lawrence Block Store at Amazon
Evan Tanner Mystery Series
"The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep" [ET#1 = 1966]
"The Canceled Czech" [ET#2 = 1966]
"Tanner's Twelve Swingers" [ET#3 = 1967]
"The Scoreless Thai" a.k.a. "Two for Tanner" [ET#4 = 1968]
"Tanner's Tiger" [ET#5 = 1968]
"Here Comes A Hero" a.k.a. "Tanner's Virgin" [ET#6 = 1968)
"Me Tanner, You Jane" [ET#7 = 1970]
Matthew Scudder Mystery Series
series books
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Scudder
"The Sins of The Fathers" [MS#1 1976]
"Time To Murder and Create" [MS#2 1976]
"In the Midst of Death" [MS#3 1976]
"A Stab In The Dark" [MS#4 1981]
"Eight Million Ways To Die" [MS#5 1982]
"When The Sacred Ginmill Closes" [MS#6 1986]
"Out On The Cutting Edge" [MS#7 1989]
"A Ticket To The Boneyard" [MS#8 1990]
"A Dance At The Slaughterhouse" [MS#9 1991]
"A Walk Among The Tombstones" [MS#10 1992]
"The Devil Knows You're Dead" [MS#11 1993]
"A Long Line of Dead Men" [MS#12 1994]
"Even The Wicked" [MS#13 1997]
"Everybody Dies" [MS#14 1998]
"Hope To Die" [MS#15 2001]
"All The Flowers Are Dying" [MS#16 2005]
"A Drop of The Hard Stuff" [MS#17 2011]
"The Night and The Music" [MS#18 2013]
a collection of eleven Matthew Scudder short stories and novelettes
Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery Series
series books
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Rhodenbarr
"Burglars Can't Be Choosers" [BR#1 = 1977]
"The Burglar In The Closet" [BR#2 = 1978]
 | "The Burglar Who Liked To Quote Kipling" [BR#3 = 1979] Bernie Rhodenbarr, Block's Greenwich Village bookseller who moonlights as a burglar, is hired to steal a long-lost Kipling manuscript; as usual, surprises include a dead body and a maze of twisted motives. Kindle Edition from HarperCollins e-books [10/2009] for $4.74 HarperTorch mass pb [3/2005] for $7.50 No Exit Press mass pb [9/90] out of print/used Pocket mass pb [4/82] out of print/used Dutton Adult 9½x6¼ hardcover [7/96] out of print/80+ used |
![Burglar Who Studied Spinoza mystery novel by Lawrence Block [Bernie Rhodenbarr]](covers/LBlockBurglarStudiedSpinoza.jpg) | "The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza" [BR#4 = 1980] Bookseller Bernie gets a tip that a coin hobbyist will be out of town, so he and a friend burgle the apartment, only to find it a mess from a prior break-in; Bernie opens the safe and takes jewelry and a single rare 5-cent coin. Next day, the cops accuse Bernie of a third event, which included the beating of the coin hobbyist and the murder of his wife. Bernie takes the coin to his fence along with a copy of Spinoza's "Ethics" (to get on the fence's good side) and is told that the coin is one of only five that exist, and is worth half a million bucks! Shortly thereafter, the fence is murdered and the coin is missing. Kindle Edition from HarperCollins e-books [10/2009] for $4.74 HarperTorch mass pb [7/2006] for $7.99 Dutton Adult 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/97] out of print/120+ used |
"The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian" [BR#5 = 1983]
"The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams" [BR#6 = 1994]
![The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart mystery novel by Lawrence Block [Bernie Rhodenbarr]](covers/LBlockBurglarBogart.jpg) | "The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart" [BR#7 = 1995] Bookseller Bernie has a new girlfriend who loves going to Humphrey Bogart movies; he gets a burglary job and retrieves the wanted portfolio, but then the client is murdered, and Bernie is hounded by Det. Kirchmann and by a gang of Eastern Europeans including a Fat Man. Kindle Edition from HarperCollins e-books [10/2009] for $4.74 HarperTorch mass pb [10/2006] for $7.19 No Exit Press mass pb [2/2002] out of print/used Dutton 9x5¾ hardcover [6/95] out of print/200+ used |
"The Burglar In The Library" [BR#8 = 1997]
"The Burglar In The Rye" [BR#9 = 1999]
"The Burglar On The Prowl" [BR#10 = 2004]
"The Burglar Who Counted The Spoons" [BR#11 = 2013]
Chip Harrison Mystery Series
"No Score" [CH#1 = 1970]
"Chip Harrison Scores Again" [CH#2 = 1971]
"Make Out With Murder (a.k.a. The Five Little Rich Girls" [CH#3 = 1974]
"The Topless Tulip Caper" [CH#4 = 1975]
the Chip Harrison short story "As Dark As Christmas Gets" was written specifically for customers of the Otto Penzler–owned Mysterious Bookshop, printed in booklet format for the 1997 holiday season, and collected in "Christmas At The Mysterious Bookshop" [Vanguard Press 2010] ISBN 978-1-59315-617-6
hit man Keller Mystery Series
"Hit Man" [K#1 = 1998]
"Hit List" [K#2 = 2000]
★
 | "Transgressions: Ten Brand-New Novellas" [2005] Edited by Ed McBain includes: Lawrence Block's "Keller's Adjustment"; Jeffery Deaver's "Forever"; John Farris's "The Ransome Women"; Stephen King's "The Things They Left Behind"; editor McBain's "Merely Hate"; Sharyn McCrumb's "The Resurrection Man"; Walter Mosley's "Archibald Lawless, Anarchist At Large: Walking The Line"; Joyce Carol Oates's "The Corn Maiden"; Anne Perry's "Hostages"; and Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder tale "Walking Around Money" NOTE: the four mass-market paperback volumes contain 2 or 3 stories only Kindle Edition from Forge Books [2005 edition] for $7.99 Forge Books 9¼x6½ hardcover [4/2005] out of print/140+ used "Transgressions, Volume 1" [2006] Edited by Ed McBain contains "Keller's Adjustment" by Lawrence Block and "Forever" by Jeffery Deaver Kindle Edition from Forge/Macmillan [2006 edition] for $7.99 Forge Books mass pb [8/2006] out of print/100+ used |
★
"Hit Parade" [K#3 = 2006]
"Hit and Run" [K#4 = 2008]
lawyer Martin Ehrengraff Mystery Stories
lawyer Martin Ehrengraff does not appear in court, nor has the character yet appeared in a novel; there are so far twelve stories (2016).
One Amazon reader describes Ehrengraff as 'not so much a lawyer as a sociopath with a law degree'.
 | "Defender of The Innocent: The Casebook of Martin Ehrengraf" [12 stories 2014]
Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [9/2014] for $4.99 CreateSpace 9x6 pb [1/2015] for $14.99 Subterranean 9½x6¾ hardcover [9/2014] for $23.79 "Ehrengraf For The Defense" [11 stories 1994] Airtight Seels Allied Prodns limited edition hardcover [1994] out of print/scarce |
Other Fiction by Lawrence Block
"Babe In The Woods" [1960]
Block ghost-wrote this novel following the death of author William Ard (only Ard is credited)
"Death Pulls A Doublecross" [1961] (reissued as Coward's Kiss)
"Mona" [1961]
(reissued as Sweet Slow Death and by Hard Case Crime as Grifter's Game)
"Markham" [1961]
reissued as You Could Call It Murder) - written and published as a tie-in to Markham (TV series)
"The Girl With The Long Green Heart" [1965]
"Deadly Honeymoon" [1967]
"After The First Death" [1969]
"The Specialists" [1969]
"Ronald Rabbit Is A Dirty Old Man" [1971]
"Ariel" [1980]
"Code of Arms" [1981]
"Into The Night" [1987]
Block completed this novel from a manuscript by Cornell Woolrich
"Random Walk" [1988]
 | "The Perfect Murder: Five Great Mystery Writers Create The Perfect Crime" [1991] Edited by Jack Hitt The set-up is that a man's rich wife plans to disinherit him, she is having an affair with his best friend, so he wants to commit the perfect murder and blame the lover for her death. He writes to five top mystery novelists – Lawrence Block, Sarah Caudwell, Tony Hillerman, Peter Lovesey, and Donald E. Westlake – and asks for advice in committing such a crime . . . HarperCollins mass pb [8/92] out of print/many used HarperCollins hardcover [7/91] out of print/many used Seuil French-language edition pb [3/99] out of print/used |
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"Some Days You Get The Bear: Collected Stories" [short stories 1994]
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"The Collected Mystery Stories" [2000]
 | "Non-stop suspense from the grandmaster of crime" • contains 58 stories previously uncollected in the U.K., plus 12 additional stories; included among them are two Harrison stories, three Rhodenbarr stories, eight Scudder stories, and nine Ehrengraf stories
592-page Orion Publng 9¼x6 pb [8/2000] out of print/used 754-page Orion Books Ltd. 9½x6½ hardcover [8/2000] out of print/used |
"Enough Rope: Collected Stories" [84 short stories 2002]
includes two Chip Harrison stories, three Bernie Rhodenbarr stories, five Keller stories
"Small Town" [2003]
"One Night Stands and Lost Weekends" [short stories 2009]
"Dolly's Trash and Treasures" [short stories 2010]
written for audio presentation in The Sounds of Crime
 | "Hellcats and Honeygirls" [2010 omnibus] by Lawrence Block & Donald E. Westlake three novels: "A Girl Called Honey" [1960], "So Willing" [1960], and "Sin Hellcat" [1962] originally published under pseudonyms Sheldon Lord & Alan Marshall Subterranean Press 9x6¼ hardcover [2010] out of print/used |
"The Night and The Music" [short stories 2011]
"Ehrengraf For The Defense" [short stories 2012]
"Catch and Release" [short stories 2013]
"Resume Speed" [novella 2016]
 | A man buys a bus ticket from North Dakota to Spokane. Washington but sees a Help Wanted sign in the window of a diner in Cross Creek, Montana and gets off the bus. Kindle Edition from L.B. Prodns [2/2016] for $2.99 |
Other Works by Lawrence Block
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
 | "Telling Lies For Fun & Profit: A Manual For Fiction Writers" [orig 1981] by Lawrence Block, Introduction by Sue Grafton Contents are four years' worth of Block's monthly fiction-writing column from Writer's Digest Magazine Kindle Edition from HarperCollins e-books [3/2009] for $4.99 Harper 9¼x6 pb [rev 2/94] for $10.05 |
"Spider, Spin Me A Web: A Handbook For Fiction Writers" [10/1988] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Spin-Web-Lawrence-Block/dp/0898793262/
 | "The Best American Mystery Stories, 2001" Edited by Lawrence Block & Otto Penzler 20 stories by authors including Russell Banks, William Gay, Jeremiah Healy, Steve Hockensmith, Clark Howard, Michael Hyde, Dan Leone, Thomas Lynch, Joyce Carol Oates, T. Jefferson Parker, Peter Robinson, and Roxana Robinson Houghton Mifflin 8¼x6½ pb [10/2001] for $10.40 Houghton Mifflin 8¾x6¼ hardcover [10/2001] for $19.25 |
"Gangsters, Swindlers, Killers, and Thieves: The Lives and Crimes of Fifty American Villains" [5/2004]
Edited by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Swindlers-Killers-Thieves-American/dp/B004JZWS6Q/
 | "Manhattan Noir (Akashic Noir)" [15 stories 2006] Edited by Lawrence Block
Akashic Books 8x5¼ pb [4/2006] for $12.44 brand-new stories by Charles Ardai, Carol Lea Benjamin, editor Block, Thomas H. Cook, Jeffery Deaver, Jim Fusilli, Robert Knightly, John Lutz, Liz Martínez, Maan Meyers, Martin Meyers, S.J. Rozan, Justin Scott, C.J. Sullivan, and Xu Xi "Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics" [20 stories 2008] Edited by Lawrence Block Akashic Books 8x5¼ pb [9/2008] for $14.04 20 classic stories & poems by Geoffrey Bartholomew, editor Block, Jerome Charyn, Stephen Crane, Horace Gregory, O. Henry, Clark Howard, Langston Hughes, Evan Hunter, Susan Isaacs, Barry N. Malzberg, Jerrold Mundis, Joyce Carol Oates, Edgar Allan Poe, Damon Runyon, Irwin Shaw, Jerome Weidman, Donald E. Westlake, Edith Wharton, and Cornell Woolrich |
"Writing The Novel: From Plot To Print" [12/2010] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Novel-Print-Lawrence-Block/dp/0911654674/
"The Liar's Bible: A Handbook for Fiction Writers" [3/2011] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Bible-Handbook-Fiction-Writers-ebook/dp/B004TC1478/
"The Liar's Companion: A Field Guide for Fiction Writers" [5/2011] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Companion-Field-Fiction-Writers/dp/1480480010/
"How Far: A One-Act Stage Play" [7/2011] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/How-Far-one-act-stage-play-ebook/dp/B005C2CJ1Y/
"Generally Speaking" [2011] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Generally-Speaking-Lawrence-Block-ebook/dp/B006PVNFMS/
"Afterthoughts" [9/2012] by Lawrence Block
a collection of 45 Afterwords from Block's books
http://www.amazon.com/Afterthoughts-Lawrence-Block/dp/148048072X/
"Write For Your Life: The Home Seminar For Writers" [2014] by Lawrence Block
http://www.amazon.com/Write-Your-Life-Seminar-Writers/dp/1494858681/
 | "In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired By The Paintings of Edward Hopper" [2016] Edited by Lawrence Block 17 new short stories, by authors Megan Abbott, Jill D. Block, editor Lawrence Block, Robert Olen Butler, Lee Child, Nicholas Christopher, Michael Connelly ("Nighthawks"), Jeffery Deaver, Craig Ferguson, Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Gail Levin, Warren Moore, Joyce Carol Oates ("The Woman In The Window"), Kris Nelscott, Jonathan Santlofer, and Justin Scott Kindle Edition from Pegasus Books [12/2016] for $12.99 Pegasus Books 9¼x6½ hardcover [12/2016] for $19.70 |
Works About Lawrence Block
haven't found any yet
Friends & Family
Lawrence Block was born in Buffalo, New York in 1938; he has written fiction since 1958, and lives in New York City.
first wife ??
daughter Amy Block Reichel
daughter Jill D. Block
daughter Alison Block Pouliot
L i n k s
author website
Lawrence Block entry at Wikipedia
Lawrence Block credits {since 1967} at Internet Movie Database
browse the Lawrence Block Store at Amazon
here on BlackHat Mystery Bookstore's Lawrence Block Page
top of page • short profile • Evan Tanner series • Matthew Scudder series • Bernie Rhodenbarr series • Chip Harrison series •
hit man Keller series • other fiction • other works • works about Lawrence Block • friends & family • links
v v
Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
via other Amazon sites: just follow these instructions.
Online sales in association with 
top of this page •• back to BlackHat Mystery Bookstore homepage