Small Town [Mass Market Paperback]

Lawrence Block (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2003

In the shadows of unbearable tragedy, an unlikelykilling machine begins a one-man war tobring a city to its knees -- a battle that will touchthe lives of its eight million citizens including:

• a writer on the verge of a breakthrough
  
  
• a charismatic ex-police commissioner -- and the inside choice for the next mayor -- on the edge of a breakdown
  
  
• a beautiful, sophisticated art dealerplumbing the depths of her own fiercesexuality
  
  
• a defense attorney who prefers murdertrials because there’s one less witness
  
  
• an ex-addict who has turned being cleaninto a living, mopping up after New York’snightlife

Pulsating with the lives of its denizens -- bartenders and hookers, power brokers andpoliticos, cops and secretaries, editors anddreamers -- Lawrence Block's electrifying newnovel reveals the small town at the heart of theBig Apple in all its power, terror, and starkbeauty.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A solid craftsman with five bestselling series under his belt as well as numerous standalone mysteries and short-story collections to his credit, Lawrence Block breaks new ground with a resonant, compelling thriller about one man's response to the Twin Towers tragedy--an insane yet totally comprehensible, seemingly unconnected string of serial murders, or, as the killer calls them, "sacrifices" to the city he believes will be reborn out of the ashes of destruction. Block, a New Yorker born and bred, has penned a paean to the Manhattan he knows and loves, and created a cast of fascinating characters whose lives are touched by the killings. Among the most interesting are a woman whose sexual obsessions ensnare a former police commissioner who's being groomed for higher political office, a crime novelist uncertain about his own culpability in the so-called Carpenter Killings, and a gay housecleaner whose clients keep ending up dead. This may be Block's best novel to date--it's certainly his most erotic and astonishing one, and it will keep you going until the last extraordinary page. A mesmerizing take on New York after 9/11, this solidly paced, brilliantly executed thriller deserves all the attention it will surely receive. --Jane Adams --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This is a rare standalone from the Edgar Award-winning creator of Matt Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, hit man Keller and others, and takes a number of risks unusual for its author. For a start, it is very deliberately a post-9/11 thriller, in which a man bereaved by the loss of his wife and children in the Twin Towers sets out to wreak what he thinks of as a sacrificial vengeance on the city by becoming a serial terrorist himself. For another, Block, who wrote some pornography early in his career, has created a female character whose kinky sex antics will definitely ruffle some of his mainstream readers. And while an intimate knowledge of New York and its folkways, and of urban character and conversation, has always been one of Block's great strengths, and is on plentiful show again here, his rather improbable action climax seems carelessly tacked on to the meticulous rest of the book. The novel offers a very crowded canvas whose central characters are the sad figure of the terrorist himself; a former police commissioner who eventually sets out to bring him down; a midlist writer who suddenly gets to be a hot property when he's accused of a murder (the publishing scenes will be delightful for insiders); the aforementioned kinky lady, an art dealer when not playing pierced dominatrix; a gay recovering alcoholic who unwittingly leads the villain to the scenes of his crimes; and, of course, the city itself, which, as the title suggests, is a place where everyone is somehow connected to everyone else's business. It's a bold and flashy effort, but its deliberately disturbing elements may somewhat limit its appeal.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060011912
• ISBN-13: 978-0060011918
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,828,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lawrence Block (b. 1938) is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Leaving school before graduation, he moved to New York City, a locale that features prominently in most of his works. His earliest published writing appeared in the 1950s, frequently under pseudonyms, and many of these novels are now considered classics of the pulp fiction genre. During his early writing years, Block also worked in the mailroom of a publishing house and reviewed the submission slush pile for a literary agency. He has cited the latter experience as a valuable lesson for a beginning writer.

Block's first short story, "You Can't Lose," was published in 1957 in Manhunt, the first of dozens of short stories and articles that he would publish over the years in publications including American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and the New York Times. His short fiction has been featured and reprinted in over eleven collections including Enough Rope (2002), which is comprised of eighty-four of his short stories.

In 1966, Block introduced the insomniac protagonist Evan Tanner in the novel The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep. Block's diverse heroes also include the urbane and witty bookseller--and thief-on-the-side--Bernie Rhodenbarr; the gritty recovering alcoholic and private investigator Matthew Scudder; and Chip Harrison, the comical assistant to a private investigator with a Nero Wolfe fixation who appears in No Score, Chip Harrison Scores Again, Make Out with Murder, and The Topless Tulip Caper. Block has also written several short stories and novels featuring Keller, a professional hit man. Block's work is praised for his richly imagined and varied characters and frequent use of humor.

A father of three daughters, Block lives in New York City with his second wife, Lynne. When he isn't touring or attending mystery conventions, he and Lynne are frequent travelers, as members of the Travelers' Century Club for nearly a decade now, and have visited about 150 countries.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little bit twisted, but a good page-turner, August 11, 2005

By 

B. McEwan "yellokat" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Small Town (Mass Market Paperback)

I suspect that the reason this novel hasn't received a higher overall rating on Amazon is because of the character, Susan Pomerance, who is -- to put it politely -- sexually kinky in the extreme, and whose exploits doubtless were a turn off to many Lawrence Block fans, who don't expect this kind of soft porn in his books.

I didn't much like Susan either. At first I thought Block had made a major error in giving her a prominent role in the novel, and even after finishing Small Town with a considerable degree of satisfaction I still think it would have been a more comfortable book without Susan. That said, I have also come to realize that Block included Susan for the express purpose of making his readers uncomfortable. After all, Small Town is a book about the aftermath of 9/11, a time during which no New Yorker I know was anywhere near comfortable. Those of us who survived the attack -- whether or not we had family and friends who perished -- were all affected. Ultimately, life went on, just as it does for the characters in Small Town, but life was surely different, and probably always will be.

I think Block's view is that 9/11 literally unhinged many New Yorkers. The blasts at the Towers shattered our assumptions and expectations every bit as much as they shattered steel, glass and human lives, with the result that some of us, including Block's characters, dramatically changed our life views and, consequently, our behaviors. Seen in this light, Susan's behavior becomes more understandable, if not acceptable.

And Susan aside, the others characters, particularly the Carpenter, are very well drawn. They operate in what is essentially a new world, which changed within the space of a couple of hours and which forces them to confront their fears and privledges in a way they never have. And the plot offers all of the suspense and credible detail we have come to expect from Block. It kept me turning pages into the night, which is, for me, the acid test of a good book.

So, if you enjoy a good story and don't mind being challenged by an unexpected anti-heroine like Susan, read Small Town, whose main character is, in the end, New York City itself.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OVER THE TOP SEX AND LOOSE ENDS GALORE, May 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Small Town: A Novel (Block, Lawrence) (Hardcover)

Despite all the favorable reviews I read in this space, I thought this was an awful book. Major plot lines were left hanging. Heroine has outrageous sex with many people in bizarre and embarrassing ways, ends up loving the protagonist -- who still may be a murderer. Everybody ends up happy when they shouldn't, when in reality they wouldn't. The 9/11 stuff is so unreal. There is no motivation here that makes sense. This is the kind of stuff that Harold Robbins was famous for, but at least he tried to tie things together; Block doesn't even make the effort. If this is the kind of stuff you guys are reading and enjoying, you need to
move up in the world and try other authors of some quality.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Read -- But It's Not For Everyone!, May 31, 2003

By 

bobbewig (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Small Town: A Novel (Block, Lawrence) (Hardcover)

Overall, I enjoyed Small Town a lot. It's a very compelling, interesting and somewhat challenging read. In Block's Small Town, New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 is really a small town filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations fears, disappointments and triumphs are all interconnected by bonds as unspeakable as they are unseen. The plot involves a series of apparently unconnected serial killings, which in the warped viewpoint of the Carpenter are intended as "sacrifices" in order to help the city and its dwellers to be reborn out of the chaos and destruction caused by 9/11. Block is at the top of his game in terms of plot development and character development; however, Small Town represents a big departure from what fans of his books have become used to. Small Town is not, as is obvious if you've read the very mixed reviews by other Amazon readers, a book for everyone. Many criticize it for its very graphic and erotic sexual passages as well as for the ending leaving too many threads untied. While I understand how the book could be criticized for these reasons, I, personally, didn't share these opinions. In fact, I think the sexual relationships, while very graphic, were integral to the main story line. And while it's true that some sub-story lines are not as closed as readers expect in a novel, in real life not all stories have a clear, precise ending. As I said, earlier, Small Town is a somewhat challenging read in that you have to really pay attention to some of the small clues Block provides. If you don't, you might find, as I did, that you'll have to go back and reread some areas to understand its connection to the outcome. I hope this review is helpful to you in deciding whether Small Town is a book for you -- because it's not for everyone.