Customer Reviews

The Girl with the Long Green Heart

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was a crime novel from Lawrence Block that initiated the Hard Case Crime line (a new imprint from Dorchester Publications and Winterfall LLC that focuses on books written in the style of the old pulp crime novels) in 2004, and Grifter's Game was a nearly perfect choice. It set the tone for works to come while making a terrific impression on its own terms.

Now Ardai and company have returned with another fantastic Block reprint, again with a grifting theme. I love a good long-con tale, and The Girl with the Long Green Heart is one of the best. In terms of pure entertainment value (and educational value, if you're an aspiring criminal like me), it belongs side-by-side with The Sting.

The title character is Evvie Stone, secretary (among other things) to millionaire Wallace J. Gunderman. He promised to marry Evvie a long time ago, but never came through with the ring. However, that hasn't stopped him from getting his milk for free, so to speak, and Evvie is primed for revenge.

Enter Doug Rance and John Hayden, a couple of long-time con artists who work terrifically together due to their complementary styles. They've hatched an ingenious plan guaranteed to relieve Gunderman of a hundred thousand of his precious dollars, and Evvie couldn't be more eager to help them out from the inside. But is she too eager?

Block devises a con so well, it makes you wonder if he hasn't been involved in a little "research" himself (in addition to his lock-picking expertise as shown in his Bernie Rhodenbarr series). The author has a way with words unlike any other author. Written in the first person, The Girl with the Long Green Heart has a lot of internal monologue from John's point-of-view. Much of it has to do with the planning of the job, but a preponderence is simply one man's thoughts when thrust into a set of situations he did not plan on, and Block manages to somehow make it all utterly riveting.

In which case, The Girl with the Long Green Heart reads like lightning -- I was finished before I realized I was over halfway through. And it's that kind of readability that brings me back to Block (and Hard Case Crime) time and time again, whatever the book. He's not always the most original plotter (his Rhodenbarrs owe a huge debt to Agatha Christie and his Chip Harrison "mysteries" are just softcore Nero Wolfe rip-offs), but his distinctive voice ensures familiarity and his pure skill at storytelling promises a fun read every time -- the primary reason why he is one of my favorite authors.

My local library has several Hard Case Crime novels and they look like the hardboiled mysteries that I like. So, I bought Hard Case's reprint of Lawrence Block's 1965 novel The Girl with the Long Green Heart at my local dollar store and read it on vacation. I got what I wanted - an "easy-reading," hard-boiled mystery.

The plot will be familiar to mystery fans: "retired" grifter Johnny Hayden gets out of San Quentin and goes straight by taking a dead-end job in a bowling alley in Boulder, Colorado. His old partner in crime - compulsive gambler Doug Rance - comes for a visit.

Predictably, Doug offers Johnny the chance to participate in one, last big score. Doug has met a femme fatale (Evvie Stone) in Las Vegas. She lives in Olean, New York, where she is the mistress of a millionaire named Wallace Gunderman. Doug, Evvie, and Johnny plot to rip off Gunderman.

Hardboiled mystery fans will like this one. The plot is interesting with plenty of action and violence. Block also makes good use of the settings (Chicago, Toronto, Olean). But Block's characters - while well drawn - are overly familiar: the "reformed" criminal, the femme fatale, the crooked capitalist. Also, the plot is predictable.

I recommend The Girl with the Long Green Heart to mystery fans who want simple escapism. It won't change your life, but it's a lot of fun.

It is hard to believe as we sit here in the 21st century, but there was a point in time when Lawrence Block was not a household name. It is just as difficult, in some ways, to comprehend that Block is well into his fifth decade of writing classic crime fiction. Exhibit A is THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART. First published in 1965 as a paperback original, it has been reissued here under the Hard Case Crime imprint. Hard Case has been carefully and cannily publishing a mix of original and out-of-print crime novels, and THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART, like other reissues from the house, is more than a snapshot of a currently established writer at the infant stage of his career. It is a demonstration of the early, and unacknowledged, brilliance that Block was exhibiting while toiling in relative shadow.

One who reads this book will have to do so with the knowledge that almost all of the modern conveniences that we take for granted --- computers, the Internet, fax machines, even telephone caller ID --- did not exist. Anyone, however, who has recently opened an email purporting to be from a Nigerian industrialist seeking aid in removing $27 million from a frozen bank account will immediately recognize Johnny Hayden and Doug Rance. Hayden is newly released from hard time in San Quentin, working in a bowling alley while he attempts to save up enough money to buy a small bar of his own. Rance, a casual acquaintance from Hayden's shady past, approaches him with a quick-score proposition.

The object of their exercise is Wallace Gunderman, a no-nonsense real estate mogul who is ripe for the picking. Rance even has a source inside Gunderman's office, though it hardly could be described as a mole in any sense of the word. Gunderman's beautiful secretary, Evelyn Stone, may also be his lover, but Gunderman has reneged on his promise to marry her. Stone, a woman scorned, is accordingly ready to enact a financial and personal revenge on Gunderman. All Hayden and Rance need is a hook that Gunderman will find irresistible. Hayden is reluctantly drawn into the scheme --- he doesn't want to go back to jail --- but the challenge of setting the plan in motion, not to mention the possibility of quickly getting the seed money necessary to fulfill his entrepreneurial dream, becomes too strong a lure.

Things go smoothly, and it almost seems as if the trio will pull it off. Longtime readers of the genre perhaps will see trouble coming, but Block, just a few years into an already brilliant career at the time this forgotten classic was written, manages to inject a surprise or two that will still resonate with and delight present-day thriller aficionados. The most important element of the book, however, is the journey, and Block provides a triptych that is long --- not only on the ultimate reliability of its destination but also upon the scenery along the way.

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART is yet another example of why both Block and Hard Case Crime are indispensable. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Long before Lawrence Block was hammering out his raw, gritty, and long running series of hard-boiled PI Matt Scudder mysteries, he was writing classic pulp fiction crime in a class with and the style of Jim Thompson, Dashiell Hammett, and Don Westlake. Written in 1965, "The Girl with the Long Green Heart" is a prime example of the top of that period's genre, a hidden gem of a novel as alluring and provocative as the Robert McGiness cover illustration.

This is a simple tale of the long con, of John Hayden and Doug Rance, a couple of non repentant grifters out to out to score on Wallace Gunderman, a western New York state real estate millionaire. Square in the middle of the mix is Evvie Stone, Gunderman's secretary who, to settle her own score with her boss, agrees to play the inside of the scam. Block only casually veils the inevitable plot twists, so while the outcome may be predictable, getting there is nonetheless a rare treat. As refreshingly typical in the pre-politically correct era of the 60's, Block's characters are rarely without a cigarette in one hand, and most often with a bottle of hard booze in the other. And for an ironic dose of pre-9/11 air travel nostalgia, at one point Johnny laments, "It's against some silly law to carry a gun on a plane, but no one normally paws through your baggage or frisks you as you enter the plane."

In summary, a totally enjoyable story told in the lean, unadorned prose you'd expect from the prolific Block. For another fine example of life on the grift, you may want to check out Jim Thompson's "The Getaway", another classic of crime fiction as gripping today as it was a half century ago.

This is the story of a long time grifter who's tired of the game but wants to make one more big score so he can finance his dream of buying a little motel and living a straight arrow life. He and his partner are masters of the long con, a type of deeply complex flim flam that can take several months to plan and pull off.

The proposed victim is a greedy swine who is so unsympathetic that most readers will concede that he deserves exactly what the grifters have planned for him. And to top it off and they have a girl, the victims own secretary and part time lover, working with them. She's the beauty with the green heart necklace and she's a lot tougher than anybody in the story realizes and she makes our tough guy narrator forget all his grifter rules.

The plan is exquisitely worked out and the grifters and the girl stand to walk away with a whole lot of money. Of course things go wildly wrong. Suddenly the team of cons find themselves playing for something much bigger than money---survival.

This book is so good. It's true hard boiled 1950s noir written by a true master.

Buy this book and read the hell out of it. The cover's swell (Hard Case Crime always does a bang-up job) and it's got one of the best titles I've ever heard of, but the reason to stay is Block's tight, sharp prose. He tells a clean story with all the fat burned off. Everything Hard Case Crime has put out has been top shelf---But this may be the best yet.

Hard Case Crime continues their tradition of excellence with their latest re-release of a classic noir novel, this time a con man's gem from one of the masters of the medium. Block knows the territory as well as anyone in the genre ever has, and even this early novel (originally published in 1965) demonstrates his already considerable chops. A pair of grifters set up a long con to fleece a New York businessman with a Canadian land scam. They've got the whole thing planned to the smallest detail -- or so they think. Wanna bet things somehow go wrong? This machine-gun paced story shows that, even from the beginning, nobody was better than Block.

For those with a taste for classic noir involving the long con, welcome to genre heaven. This forty year-old stunner could have been written yesterday. It's not just classic Block; it's mature Block. The writing is as slick as the seat of an accountant's pants and the plot is flawless. Although it's extremely different, the novel reminded me of the film A SIMPLE PLAN. From scene one you know that this story is going nowhere good. The plan is too simple, the characters too devious, the pitfalls too plentiful.

With a true masterpiece of genre fiction the reader simultaneously surrenders to the plot while second-guessing the author. You know that the linear plot will go awry; you also know the ways in which it is likely to go awry; you know the dimensions of the consequences in each case and, hence, the stakes. You also know that Block knows all these things and that he may be working with you or against you.

Block's forte is the ability to master genre while appearing to write effortlessly and simply. Of all the master crime writers out and about, Block is the one who always makes it look easy. We know how hard that is to do. Here is an absolute gem. Enjoy.

I have read so many of Blocks books. Matt Scudder is one of my all time favorite characters. I often find myself holding Scudder up to other PI's or genre protagonists and 90% of the time see big lacking holes in comparison. What surprises me is that in my opinion most of the other Block books that I have read really suck. So when I came across 'The Girl with the long green Heart' I was hesitant to even open the book and start in on it.

All I can say is that I am very glad that I did. This is a five star con game book. From the opening line to the resolution, Block plays it Sam Spade cool. This is a Noir film style book straight out of the Mitchum MGM days. The plot is first rate, taught and elegant in its unfolding. The writing is crisp, chattering away with prose that Hemmingway would be proud of. All in all I cant find anything to be upset with or come up with a single major fault. And as a reviewer I feel that finding faults is my business.

What excites me is that it seems their are other books in a series by Block here. I cant wait to start in on the next one. Read this book. Its great and you will have to problems with it if you are at all a fan of the noir/PI genre like myself.

This is my first foray into the world of the noir genre. I have never read any of these books, and so I was curious to see what they would hold for me. I have to say I did not expect too much in the way of reading experience, but I got a hell of one in this book. What I got was a bird's eye view of a scheme to take someone for all they are worth. It was a good trip, watching these jail birds think up their con. So, I can now say these books, which I had devalued because they looked cheesy, are worth a read.