From Publishers Weekly
First published in two volumes by Crippen & Landru in 1999, this collection of early crime stories from bestseller Block (
Hit and Run) is a mixed bag. Part one consists of 25 unremarkable tales, including Block's sole foray into science fiction. Offering no defense of their quality in his frank introduction, the author admits that he hasn't reread these stories in decades. Even devoted fans will struggle not to lose patience at encountering yet another grim account of a brutal misogynist who ends up on the wrong end of a gun or a knife. By contrast, the three novellas featuring New York City PI Ed London, starting with The Naked and the Deadly, are taut classic hard-boiled noir, with the gumshoe tangling with treacherous women and lying clients. Closer to the MWA Grand Master's usual level, they blend suspense, a puzzle and an appropriately cynical first-person narrative voice, and will leave even newcomers hungry for more.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
These short stories and novellas were originally published, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in magazines with names like Manhunt, Guilty, and Trapped. In his entertaining introduction, Block, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, freely admits he hasn’t read them since—he is afraid to. Should you be? That depends. Even on training wheels, Block dropped hints at the writer he was to become. The cognac-drinking, pipe-smoking, Mozart-loving Ed London, Block’s first PI, becomes more interesting when considered as a prototype for the complex Matt Scudder. And it’s fun to read Nor Iron Bars a Cage (originally titled To Althea from Prison), Block’s first (and, thankfully, only) try at science fiction. But with the pulp-fiction revival going great guns, hard-boiled rarities are increasingly common, so this may be best suited for Block completists—although true collectors will have already hunted down the limited-edition hardcovers One Night Stands (1999) and The Lost Cases of Ed London (2001). Better Block abounds, but you could do far worse for bathroom reading. --Keir Graff
