The title pretty much tells the whole premise behind this book. Mystery stories by today's writers and the stories that inspired them. Like most short story collections some are very good, some not so great. "The Wedding Gig" by Stephen King is interesting, "Murder Two" by Joyce Carol Oates not so interesting. A few, like Harlan Ellison's "Tired Old Man" and Benjamin Appel's "Murder of the Frankfurter Man" are thought provoking. As I said, a mixed bag. On the whole I think the good ones outweigh the not-so-good so if you like short fiction you could do worse than this book.

Block has created an interesting concept in this new anthology series. He contacted several mystery writers asking for what they considered to be their best story as well as the best story they have ever read. The response was overwhelming and the editor collected some of them in this book...

In the first volume of this anthology the adage 'less is more' can be applied to the best stories in the collection. Some of the best include Ed Gorman's EN FAMILLE and Joan Hess's ANOTHER ROOM. Ms. Hess's choice for best short story is Judith Garner's TRICK OR TREAT. It is about four pages long and one of the scariest stories ever written. It is not because of what happens in the story but what may happen. A sample of good writing is when the author forces the reader to use their imagination in order to create their own ending. There can be different interpretations but each one is precious. The imagination is a powerful weapon. The least favorite story in this book is Harlan Ellison's TIRED OLD MAN. The problem with this story is that Ellison describes the incident that inspired his story creating a carbon copy with fictional characters. Who wants to read a story twice?

The premise behind this anthology series is simple. Popular short story writers contribute a tale of their own while selecting a story from someone else who they enjoy. The current author list consists of a who's who of today's mystery writers with such luminaries as Mary Higgins Clark, Joyce Carol Oates, Joe Gores, Carolyn Wheat, Ian Rankin, Evan Hunter, and Sharyn McCrumb. In turn, their choices embody a who's who of literature with such renowned superstars as Poe, Stevenson, Saki, and of course that most prolific writer of all Anonymous.

Each tale is entertaining, fun to read, and expeditiously leads the audience to its companion piece, which is also well written and quite enjoyable. Fans of short story mysteries will gain much delight from the twenty-six entries that make up the wonderfully captivating MASTER'S CHOICE VOLUME II. PS, Mr. Block mentions a story he read in his youth that and now wants to know the title and author. Rings a bell with me, but I thought it was an episode of the Twilight Zone or a similar TV series.

Harriet Klausner

"It was the right kind of night for it." The no-nonsense opener gets right down to business, inviting the reader to explore the night and discover just what the night is right for--as if we didn't know!

To protect his sister, reputable private detective Ed London finds himself in the unenviable position of having to dispose of the body of the woman with whom brother-in-law Jack Enright has been having an affair. Convinced that Jack is not the killer, London dumps the corpse in Central Park and figures that is the end of it. What he doesn't know, of course, provides us with the plot. Given his character and the way of mystery novels, we expect that London will look for the murderer as a matter of principle, but an anonymous phone call gives him an even better reason.

The book is dated, but that's more than half the fun. Women exclaim "darn!" Cold-blooded criminals warn "go or get off the pot, London." And we chuckle.

I defy any detective-fiction, film-noir aficionado to read COWARD'S KISS and not find his mind nostalgically peopled with characters reminiscent of those created by Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald. London's narrative prose defines him as Spade in one passage, Marlowe in another. And with his poetic imagery he's a dead ringer for Lew Archer in the next. Looking at the old Ruskin Hotel and recalling the neighborhood in its better days, he records his thoughts: "The Ruskin stared across early-evening Eighth Avenue, watching whores bloom in doorways like pretty weeds in a dying garden."

As Ed London evokes familiar images of old friends Bogie, Powell, and Mitchum, supporting characters (I can't bring myself to call them "minor") trigger fond memories of actors who add the quintessential seasoning without which the excursion back would be incomplete. True to form, Block does not allow his detective to avoid the private eye curse--the obligatory, hard-boiled "working-over." The eye sees London as Billy and Ralph carry out the boss's orders, but there's no mistaking the mind's pictures of Dick Powell taking it like a man while Mike Mazurki as the pathetic, dumb "pro" administers the blows, and sidekick Sheldon Leonard oversees.

Further aiding and abetting the plot is a character who appears at first to be Peter Lorre but dissolves into Sidney Greenstreet before we decide he's really someone else we can't quite place. Finally, one more character must be taken into account. Who would YOU cast as the villainous sociopath who orders assassinations as nonchalantly as he orders a steak?

For the most part, reading COWARD'S KISS was a lark, but it's easy to see why it wasn't developed into a series of Ed London novels. London doesn't come to life for me as a well-defined character in his own right. Bernie Rhodenbarr, burglar extraordinaire of the popular Block series, seems to emerge periodically as an alter ego of sorts, notably in the interaction with help-mate Maddy--thereby displacing a part of the London-character-that-might-have-been. I harbor a well-deserved place for Bernie, but not as a part of Ed London.

The plot is tightly structured with no loose ends, and the revelation at the finish is not a surprise to any reader who looks for clues along the way. My mistake was permitting myself to get too caught up in the sport of Block's style. And what sport it is! When the one serious element surfaced, it sent the lark spiraling to the ground, an arrow piercing its heart--and the fun was over. I resented the vile intrusion, but in deference to Lawrence Block, it was more than likely a touch the story needed. The fate of the "little man with a harmless face" serves as a reminder that murder is not funny, not a game.

In the end, three men have proclaimed themselves to be cowards, But Lawrence Block delivers the kiss.

One of Block's early, non-series novels, DEADLY HONEYMOON tells the story of a newlywed couple assaulted on its wedding night by a pair of Mob assassins. After the brutal attack, the couple tracks the killers back to New York City and meticulously plots and executes a plan of revenge. As usual for Block's novels, the prose is lean and the plot compelling. The event that sets the story in motion invites skepticism -- would professional hitmen pause at the scene of a murder to rape an eyewitness, and if so, would they then leave the witness and her husband alive? -- but thereafter the storytelling is flawless, right through the shattering and cinematic gun battle with which the book closes. Fans of Block's work will note that this novel was the author's first to be written in the third person; his first to feature a scene in New York's Grammercy Park (which reappears memorably in THE BURGLAR IN THE CLOSET); and his first to become a movie ("Nightmare Honeymoon," 1973). Fans of this novel should try the same author's MONA and THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART or Cornell Woolrich's THE BRIDE WORE BLACK.

Bernie Rhodenbarr, burglar extraordinaire is recruited by the friend of an old acquaintance to break into an apartment to steal some documents. Unfortunately, he is interrupted during the attempt and the documents disappear. When murdered bodies begin showing up along with mysterious visitors, both threatening and friendly, Bernie finds himself drawn into a mystery whose origins come from an unknown European country.

While it had it's amusing moments, I thought the plot became very convoluted and was bogged down by a bewildering number of characters. I was also a little disappointed with the explanation for the murders and for the interest in the object that Bernie was meant to steal. All in all, it felt a bit anti-climactic.

Humorous references are made to Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series throughout the book with Block making up names for a new book that had supposedly just been released. 'I is for Claudius' was my favourite title.

This is certainly not the best book in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, but it is still entertaining in the way I expect from Block. Bernie is back with his wisecracking and his lockpicking, this time with a convoluted plot involving Humphrey Bogart movies and an attempted country called Anatruria. But it's all really unimportant, and the main clue, the word "caphob," turns out to be the key to the solution but in a really obscure way.

It's really too complicated for its own good, and Block has definitely done better, but I would read another Burglar book for the reason anyone reads a series novel, for the main character and the regular supporting cast: Carolyn, the lesbian dog groomer; and Ray, the ubiquitous policeman. Oh, yes, and Raffles, hard-working, toilet-using feline about town.

The Bogart references are fun, too, especially for a film fan.

Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, "honest" person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn't proud of what he does, doesn't like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing valuables. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. Very nice!

So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart is the seventh book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian and The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Although, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. The Burglar in the Library comes next in the series.

The series, always comical and satirical, takes a new turn in The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart. The spoof expands to the detective/thriller genre in general. I found this change to be a welcome and charming one. Anyone who is a Bogart fan will appreciate the many references to Bogart movies and famous lines in them.

My fascination with Bogart began when I was a freshman in college, and a local theater offered a Bogart festival every semester . . . just when students were supposed to be catching up on their reading and getting ready for final exams. For eight semesters, I spent many happy hours seeing the same Bogart movies . . . over and over again. As Bernie spends three weeks at the movies in this book, I felt like I was back in college again watching him.

Hugo Candlemas comes to Bernie's Barnegat Books and mentions that they have a friend in common, Abel Crowe, a fence who appeared in The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza. They arrange to meet later at Hugo's apartment, where Bernie agrees to lift a portfolio from a desk in another apartment for a minimum of $5,000. The actual caper reprises with slight variations some of the highlights of earlier novels in the series like The Burglar in the Closet and The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian. The story is set against a backdrop of Bernie falling in love with the beautiful and mysterious Ilona, whom he meets every night to watch two Bogart films, share a tub of popcorn, hold hands and then part in separate cabs. The Ilona thread of the story builds off of Casablanca. After Bernie fails to get secure the portfolio, mysterious strangers begin appearing, making offers for the item. This part of the story builds from some of the base of The Maltese Falcon. Watch for Wilmer in a close reference. Throughout, Bernie finds himself drawn to living the role of the classic Bogart hero, uncaring on the surface . . . but with a heart of gold and the mind of an idealist.

You are not supposed to take this mystery and story too seriously, but it does have a nice "dying clue" element that will intrigue many hard core mystery buffs.

The theme of this book focuses on what is valuable and what is not. Mr. Block comes down soundly on the side of friends, loyalty and love over mere physical possessions. It's his best critique yet of our obsessions with material goods and so-called wealth. After you enjoy this wonderful book, ask yourself where you could have a richer life by putting people ahead of possessions.

Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Dang near every story ran the same course, which was, the "client" turns out to be the "killer". Every single
story was predictable. I found none of them to be original or special.

Mr. Block, along the line of Elmore Leonard, has a gift for dialoge but his stories are dull and repetitious.

And the book itself was so bloody heavy it was a pain to comfortably read.

I discovered Lawrence Block when he was writing a monthly column for "Writer's Digest" magazine back in the late 70's. His contribution was always the highlight of each issue, so I began reading his novels and short stories. Now almost all of his shorter pieces, over a 40-year career, are in this volume...885 pages worth. For the price, you can't get another book that will give you as much enjoyment as this one, and teach you about well-crafted writing to boot. All his tales have a twist, and he wastes no words. Block is as good in his own way as Dick Francis and Robert B. Parker are in theirs. I had read many of these older stories in the 80's, but forgot the details until encountering them again in this volume. He'll occasionally make you laugh, more often give you a shiver, but always, his people resonate, even the darkest characters. If you know Block's work from his mystery/detective/humor series, you already know that you want to own this. If you haven't started the LB habit yet, this is "Enough Rope" to tie you up in him for years.

Fans of Block's series characters will find plenty to enjoy here, including nine Matt Scudder stories, three featuring burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and five with hit man Keller. They have all appeared elsewhere at one time or another, but unless you're a Block completist, you're unlikely to have seen several of them before. Even if you have read some of them, this book is still an invaluable addition to your collection, as it includes all of the stories and presents them in chronological order, something impossible to find prior to this.

Perhaps the best thing about "Enough Rope," though, is the inclusion of a dozen new works, most of them fairly lengthy for short stories, all of them superbly crafted and delightful little reads. A few in particular, like "Almost Perfect" (about a murderous baseball game) and "Points" (about a father and son) stand out for their quality and inventiveness. Even after half a decade of writing short fiction, Block is still trying, and succeeding at, new things. (For historical value, if nothing else, the author's first published story is included as well.)

"Enough Rope" is a hefty book, containing eighty-three stories that run almost 900 pages. That represents virtually every published story by this prolific writer. It is a testimony to the popularity of Block and the quality of his writing that his publisher would take such a gamble and produce such a large, handsome volume. "Enough Rope" is a real treat.

Reviewed by David Montgomery, MysteryInkOnline.com

From time to time, it is important for an author to stretch, to try writing something very different from what he or she is best known for. ARIEL is mystery writer Lawrence Block's experiment with the sort of feverish, madness-tinged horror for which Shirley Jackson became famous, and if he doesn't quite pull it off, one at least has to appreciate the bravery of the attempt. Block is one of the best prose craftsmen working today, but he is at his worst here, switching perspectives wildly, invoking too-familiar ghost story devices without the deftness required to make them seem fresh, peopling the story with unpleasant characters, and ending the book on a sour and very unsatisfying note. To be fair, Block has picked a tough genre -- most of the time, Shirley Jackson wasn't able to pull it off either. Chalk it up as one of Block's (extremely) rare failures, and move on. (For a Block horror success, try the truly terrifying Matt Scudder thriller A TICKET TO THE BONEYARD.)

ARIEL is great, and repersents Block as a novelist in rare form, and yet trying to strike out a new path as well. This, in the end, is what makes ARIEL both enjoying and frustrating. There are too many tales being told...the adolescent coming of age (which is done amazingly well between Erksine and ARIEL) the madness/occult/supernatural tease (it never is really clear what happened) and the 'grown ups story' of Roberta and David and Jeff/ Jeff's own family. All of these stories could've been made into a novel, but because they are all here it's sort of a literary mess. In this book we are told what some of the characters are thinking but not all of the time. In this sense, the narrative is at fualt because its at times omnipresent, and at others centered solely on ARIEL and her diary. It's an uneven book and yet I am so drawn to it, I have to say its a great book at the same time. Except for the electra complex scenes toward the end...I felt I was being hit over the head with that point. I think too that the book should've been fleshed out, but Block, being the amazing mystery writer that he is, is still writing with the urgency of a mystery. Still, read ARIEL and decide for yourself..it's still a great and provoking read, definitely worth it...you really can't go wrong with Block.

Originally marketed as "occult horror", Ariel is neither. It's a story of the madness that lies just under the surface, and what it takes to bring it out; the need to give evil a face and a name. Who better to scapegoat for unexplainable tragedies than the one who is Different? Ariel is adopted, and looks slightly unusual. Her unstable mother never fails to assume the worst, almost deliberately misreading the girl's ordinary teenage perceptiveness and need for privacy. By the book's end, almost everyone believes that Ariel is a monster -- including Ariel herself.

Great characterizations, wonderful descriptions -- I want to live in Ariel's house. I could wish for a sequel, or just for more books like it.

I've long been a devoted fan of Block, specifically the Matt Scudder series, but I latched onto Hit Man in '98. A great new character coupled with Block's talent at dialogue. Hit List, however, is filled with so many inane asides and trivial banter that the story suffers. I couldn't help thinking that this book couild have been told in half as many pages had the reader been spared some of the sparring between Keller and Dot--Patrick Picciarelli, author, "Blood Shot Eyes."

Keller is a hit man--he doesn't see anything especially wrong with his job although he prefers not to know about his victim's families--it's just how he pays the rent and keeps up his stamp collection. Now, though, something funny is happening. Several of his victims are killed before Keller gets to them. A new girlfriend accuses him of having 'murderer's thumb,' and an astrologer forecasts difficult times ahead.

Lawrence Block is a wonderfully talented writer who manages to make such an inherently unsympathetic character interesting and even sympathetic. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't mind Keller's banter and the jury scene. In fact, I think this is part of Block's trick to make us understand how Keller sees himself--just a guy doing a job. I do agree that the conclusion is just a little knocked off. I would have liked to see a little more cleverness in setting the trap for the killer after Keller. Still, I enjoyed this book a lot.

John Keller is just your average business man. He's single, dates, eats out alot, watches TV, takes in a movie or browses through stores and galleries and collects stamps for a hobby. Every so often, he gets a call from Dot, his dispatcher and heads out on a job. His line of work...contract killer...he kills total strangers for a fee and no one else in the world, except Dot, knows what he does for a living. Life is good until he goes to Louisville, Kentucky for a simple hit and gets this funny feeling that everything is not quite right, just a little off. That feeling is confirmed, when a couple are shot and killed in the motel room he's just vacated. It gets so strong, in fact, that he decides to see an astrologer and have his chart read. She tells him that he's going to have a rough year. He has an enemy out there who wants him dead.....So begins Hit List, Lawrence Block's latest mystery/thriller. This is a well paced, compelling novel full of vivid scenes, droll humor and enough twists, turns and surprises, to keep you turning pages to the end. Mr Block's writing is smart, crisp and down to earth, with dialogue that's so true to life, it will, at times, have you laughing out loud. To his credit, Keller is such a likeable, well drawn and defined character, that even though he's a hit man, you'll be rooting for him to the end. So tag along with Keller, as jobs start to go wrong and he realizes that the hit man is now on somebody's hit list. You won't be disappointed.

I like mystery/thrillers. I tend to like Lawrence Block's books a lot, all the way from punster Bernie the Bookselling Burglar to the dark paths trod by Matt Scudder. But Small Town, which is independent of his usual characters, is a major disapopintment.

It's a shame, because the first 90% of the book is riveting, even if an often distasteful sub-plot that pushes the boundaries of soft-core porn trails along the major action.

A serial killer who comes to be called the Carpenter is on the loose in the months leading up to 9/11/02. He had retired shortly before that terrible day that the Towers fell, and lost his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and son in the collapses, and then his wife a few weeks later to a suicide. He is taking revenge on the city that betrayed him, and his seemingly random methods puzzle the police. His first crime is blamed on a crime writer who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this character's story is well told, including marvelous bits about the NYC publishing world.

A retired but youthful police commisioner finds his interest piqued, and attempts to find the Carpenter before it's too late, as he surmises that the Carpenter has his major kill planned for the first anniversary of his family's deaths.

The writer and the commissioner share a woman who owns a contemporary folk art gallery, who has decided to base her life on sexual gratification (and it's explicit, folks).

While the saga of the Carpenter is brought to the close, none of the other story lines are. Not satisfactorily, at least. As I had found myself caring about these characters, I was furious! Such a cheap ploy makes me want my hours of reading restored to my life.

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.

Lawrence Block loves New York City. You can see it in his Matthew Scudder novels, in which the city is as engaging as the major character. Because of his love for the city, it was inevitable that Block would respond to the attack on the World Trade Center.
In Block's novel the 9-11 incident leads to a rash of murders. Marilyn Fairchild, a party-animal real estate agent, is murdered and the most likely suspect is John Blair Creighton, a writer who had been seen leaving a bar with the woman at closing time. In short order, several gay bars are firebombed and the only tie-in is Jerry Pankow who had cleaned the real estate agents apartment as well as the bars.
Block bends the usual mystery structure in that this case revolves around a femme fatale, Susan Pomerance, an over-sexed folk-art dealer who knew Marilyn. Susan's sexual exploits are integral to the plot. She's got the hots for John Blair Creighton as well as just about everybody else in the book, man and woman. Something you should know: Lawrence Block started his career writing for girlie magazines and he never got over it. Some of the scenes are sexually explicit. If you're the squeamish type, this book may not be for you. Block also has a wicked sense of humor. Through Creighton, Block rabbit punches the publishing industry who gets involved in a bidding war over Creighton's next book due to the murder indictment. Block also seems to be saying something about America's sexual hangups, as he portrays Susan as an erotic artist rather than a nymphomaniac.
Technically, I found this book to be a bit challenging. It is divided into nice easy-to-read chunks with lots of white space, but it's Block's use of pronouns that provokes. He's under the assumption that the reader has a brain and will be able to figure out who is in the scene through context clues. As a result I lost track of an important clue. A Zuni fetish, a small turquoise rabbit is missing from Marilyn Fairchild's apartment. It winds up in John Blair Creighton's sock drawer. We know who did the bombings and other murders because Block shows him doing them (He's the World Trade Center tie-in), but we're not sure about Marilyn Fairchild. This book was so good I'm tempted to go back and read it again to find out if I missed something. And I never read anything twice.