Customer Reviews

Tanner's Twelve Swingers (An Evan Tanner Mystery)

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

 

 

This very early Block story is effortlessly entertaining,but extremely featherweight compared to most of Mr.Blocks books.Its funny and fast moving,adequate for a quick summer beach read,but pales in comparison to almost any other Lawrence Block book.

. Tanner is back in the third of eight books in the series. This one is much better than the first two. Again Tanner leaves NYC to trek across Europe, sneak across boarders. This time the trip takes him from home to Yugoslavia north to Russia. Keeping in mind this adventure as wells as the two others takes place before the brake up of the Soviet Union and the problems and war with the breakup of Yugoslavia. Block's historical accounts are excellent and add to the excitement of the book. It's well paced and I look forward to the others in the series. At this point in time they are on backorder at amazon.com.

A delightful fast read with plenty of action and humor. Evan Turner is a spy for--well, you name it since he doesn't really know the name of the agency he works for! A good friend asks Tanner if he would go to Latvia to get his girl friend out of the country and bring her to the United States. Tanner reluctantly gives in and agrees knowing that Latvia is one of the old Soviet nations that do not allow anyone in or out of their country. Tanner knows so many connected people so he feels he can do this without getting into trouble.

Besides being a well-connected spy Tanner loves his women and seems to have one in every nation. He also has many friends in many nations that know Tanner well and owe him favors, which helps him in getting in and out of various countries. Any master spy can do this, correct? If your name is Evan Tanner or one of his aliases you have that freedom almost everywhere. Almost!

Tanner starts his trip to "rescue" the girl out of Latvia. It seems the girl is a gymnast on the national team. As Tanner goes across various borders, some legally and some with forged papers, he looks up his friends in those countries to get help. Most do help him one way or another. But when it comes time to take the girl out of Latvia, along with a few things Tanner has picked up along the way for which he promised to deliver in other nations as he went, he runs into trouble. By the time he makes his final plans for leaving Latvia he has accumulated more people to smuggle out of a nation he is not even supposed to be in.

If this sounds complicated, it is, but only for Tanner. The reader can understand every move and action that is made due to Lawrence Block's smooth writing. Even though this is a short book it packs plenty of action and fun into those pages. As I read it I was thinking how some authors would make a six hundred-page story out of all that occurred in this book. Block shortened it and kept it active and interesting.

The first time I read Tanner's Twelve Swingers I got close to the end and it was time to stop reading and go to work.But on that day even though it meant being late I had to find out what happened. Since then I have reread in many times and have more than one copy including a kindle copy. Not the best literature but a very good read.

This is the wildest and funniest thriller I've ever read. I wish there were more books like this: well-written, entertaining and fast-paced. Tanner and Block's other humorous series Bernie the buglar are so entertaining I was sorry there werent more. Its hard to find books in this genre : thriller/humor. If you like the Lovejoy series youll like these two as well.

Of the 7 Tanner books I've read, I liked this one the best. They're all fun; this was just a bit more so.