Tanner on Ice [Hardcover]

Lawrence Block (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

Lawrence Block is best-known for his popular mystery series featuring bookseller/burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr and ex-alcoholic detective Matthew Scudder. But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he created a globe-trotting adventurer with a highly developed taste for exotic locales--Evan Michael Tanner. Tanner's been on an extended vacation and, at last, Block has brought him back. Ever since his New Jersery assignment went awry in 1972, Tanner has--believe or not--been stuck in deep freeze. He has been thawed out however, and is ready to catch up on lost time. No sooner does he make himself available when he is recruited for another covert assignment destabilizing the government of Burma, the victim of a rebel movement. Exotic surroundings, drug trafficking, an exiled Russian beauty, and a mysterious dead man create an edgy and entertaining puzzle for Tanner to piece together. In a novel both zany and suspenseful, fans will finally learn where Tanner's been all these years--and where he's going next.

* Lawrence Block fans have been waiting for a new Evan Tanner mystery for 25 years.
* Signet will release the early Evan Tanner books in mass market editions.
* A teaser chapter of Tanner on Ice will appear in the Rhodenbarr mystery, The Burglar in the Library.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Evan Tanner, the spy who never sleeps, was placed in cold storage at the end of the Cold War--literally and figuratively. But in Tanner on Ice Block defrosts one of his earliest and best series heroes and sends him to Burma to stir up the guerillas, destabilize the country's authoritarian regime, and incidentally assassinate the Nobel Peace Prize-winning daughter of the country's national hero. Before long, Tanner's been set up for murder, drug smuggling, and blowing up Burma's most sacred shrine. Accompanied by a beautiful Russian/French/Vietnamese woman who wants out of Myanmar for her own reasons and has a dwindling cache of precious rubies to pay her way, he snakes through Burma disguised as a monk. Along their journey the two dodge SLORC trackers, insurgent Shan tribesmen, and the henchman of Tanner's mysterious spymaster. In Block's skilled hands, the much anticipated return of Tanner is a perfect summer hammock read. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Never one to abandon a sound series hero indefinitely, Block (who recently resurrected burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr) has now also brought back international man of action Evan Tanner, after more than 25 years. As usual, Block has a good joke up his sleeve: Tanner, one of whose characteristics is his inability to sleep, had in fact been comatose?in a deep freeze, in fact?for all that time, and the scene where he wakes up, thinking Richard Nixon is still president, is as funny and sharp as a similar one in Woody Allen's Sleeper. After that, Tanner is off to a new exotic locale, activated as usual by his vaguely CIA manager: this time it's to Burma, where he's supposed to destabilize the government by assassinating a popular opposition figure. He doesn't do it, of course, but becomes involved instead with a beautiful woman who wants to flee the country and eventually, after participating in a guerrilla action, both manage to do so. It's never less than inventive and amusing, but Block is always most at home in Manhattan, and his overseas settings, deftly sketched as they are, lack the ultimate authenticity he finds there. Tanner, too, though endowed with the author's usual wry wit, is not as fully fleshed out as are Block's more recent creations; but this will do until another Scudder comes along.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dutton; 1ST edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525944214
• ISBN-13: 978-0525944218
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,260,937 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tanner is back and all is right with the world, May 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tanner on Ice (Hardcover)

Richard Nixon was president of the United States when Evan Tanner, the man who never sleeps, was placed into a comatose state in a Union City, New Jersey freezer due to an intricate double cross. If the basement of his "permanent home" was not being remodeled, he would have been there a lot longer. No one knows, even the medical experts at NYU, what happened to him except that he should be in his sixties, but Evan looks like he is only in his thirties.

He is soon contacted by Rufus Crombie of the Feds, who wants Evan to fly to Burma where he is supposed to eliminate San Suu Kyi, the popular opposition leader, in order to send the current government into chaos. However, Evan was never an assassin and does not plan to start the practice in his second life. He also has met a cool woman in Rangoon, who he genuinely likes and heeds her advice. Than there is the problems with the local police constantly harassing him and the anonymous note threatening his life if he fails to leave town.

Like he did with Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block successfully returns an old fan favorite. The likable lead protagonist struggles with the missing eighties and the trends of the nineties, an iteresting combination which adds much to the story line. TANNER ON ICE will be well-received by a generation of new fans even though the novel is not quite on a par with his Rhodenbarr and Scudder books. Still the Tanner books are terrific tales worth reading and that opportunity will soon become readily available as the novels are all going to be reprinted.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, But Not Enough Fun, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tanner on Ice (An Evan Tanner Mystery) (Paperback)

This revival of Block's most "high concept" series is a bit higher in concept than previous entries. Not only is Tanner a man who can't sleep, but now he's been out like a light for 25 years and has missed a quarter century of social upheaval.

In one of his books on writing, Block talks a bit about the then-dormant Tanner series and why it had become dormant. One reason he cited was that many of the protagonist's lunatic-fringe interests weren't fringe any more, or at least had struggled a bit closer to center stage. He's right, I think. Many of the simmering ethnic conflicts, conspiracies and such that were grist for Tanner's mill in the old days are headline material now. (Not all, though. The funniest moment in this book comes when Tanner matter-of-factly explains to his part-Russian lady friend that she might, just might, be a beneficiary in a movement to restore the Russian monarchy.)

The problem, is, the Tanner books were never as tightly plotted as some of Block's other books -- they were romps, and their very romptitude carried them along. Now that events have diminished the central conceit, this book's weaknesses are highlighted -- much of the action takes place off-stage, several key events are chalked up to "I guess we'll never know," and too many scenes are summarized, rather than shown.

That said, I enjoyed the book. It's full of witty asides and characterization bits. and I think I would enjoy future outings, if Block can come up with some way to make the series motor work again, like he did with the Chip Harrison books. Tanner is a fun character and he could probably get a lot of mileage out of the current X-Files/conspiracy freak atmosphere, for example.

2.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and boring, November 23, 2009

By 

M. Trombly - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tanner On Ice (Evan Tanner Suspense Thrillers) (Mass Market Paperback)

The first set of Tanner books were mindless fun -- breezy, no substance, very much in tune with the times (they were written and set in the 60s and 70s). A kind of James Bond, boy who never grows up feel to them.

Towards the end, they started to drag -- Tanner was considering marriage, had an adopted daughter and sons somewhere in Yugoslavia. His playboy lifestyle was getting very dated, and he wasn't aging gracefully at all. It's hard to transition a character from all-fun-and-games to something more serious. With Tanner, it never jelled.

With Me Tanner, You Jane, Tanner got bizarre and creepy. His affair with a 14-year-old-girl was just creepy. Not to mention illegal and, again, very creepy. Yecch creepy.

With Tanner on Ice, the author seems to step back from the abyss of the previous book -- but he doesn't go back to the hijinks of the first books, either. The trip to Burma is pointless -- as was the escape from Burma that followed. The plot makes no sense and various details are never explained -- like who was the dead guy in his bed. At least the love interest is a consenting adult.