Twelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder's name -- are turning up dead. Because a vengeful maniac is determined not to rest until he's driven his nemesis back to the bottle...and then to the boneyard.

Ticket to the Boneyard

While he is probably best known as a novelist and short-story writer, Lawrence Block has produced a rich trove of nonfiction over the course of a sixty-year career. His instructional books for writers are leaders in the field, and his self-described pedestrian  memoir, Step By Step, has found a loyal audience in the running and racewalking community. Over the years, Block has written extensively for magazines and periodicals. Generally Speaking collects his philatelic columns from Linn's Stamp News, while his extensive observations of crime fiction, along with personal glimpses of some of its foremost practitioners, have won wide acclaim in book form as The Crime of Our Lives. Hunting Buffalo With Bent Nails is what he's got left over. The title piece, originally published in American Heritage, recounts the ongoing adventure Block and his wife undertook, criss-crossing  the United States and parts of Canada in their quixotic and exotic quest to find every "village, hamlet, and wide place in the road named Buffalo." Other travel tales share space with a remembrance of his mother, odes to New York, a disquisition on pen names and book tours, and, well, no end of bent nails not worth straightening. Where else will you find "Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon, " an assessment of that compelling writer from a numismatic standpoint? Where else can you read about Block's collection of old subway cars?Highly recommended.

Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails

Sa petite amie a beau être call-girl, son meilleur copain en cavale, son client trafiquant de drogue, matt scudder est un privé honnête.
 Et obstiné.  il est bien arrivé à décrocher de l'alcool ! quand on le met sur un kidnapping particulièrement ignoble, il n'est pas prêt à lâcher la piste.  il est capable de remonter à l'enlèvement des sabines s'il le faut, mais rien ne l'empêchera de penser que francine khoury n'est pas la première victime de ses ravisseurs.  le moindre morceau de preuve lui suffirait pour reconstituer le puzzle.  et ce ne sont pas les morceaux qui manquent.

La balade entre les tombes

Nel sedicesimo romanzo che ha per protagonista Matthew Scudder, Un Campo di Fiori Morti, Lawrence Block, autore best seller del New York Times, porta questa serie, già più volte premiata, a un nuovo livello di suspense e di profondità di caratterizzazione. Dopo il successo di critica e di pubblico di Spera di Morire, Block spinge Scudder - e il lettore - sull'orlo dell'abisso. Scudder, personaggio complesso che è cresciuto e invecchiato in tempo reale, affronta l'implacabile sfida della mortalità. Ma deve anche lottare con un avversario determinato, implacabile e gelidamente inumano, forse il più indimenticabile che Block abbia mai creato. In un carcere della Virginia un uomo attende l'esecuzione per tre orrendi omicidi che lui giura, nonostante prove inconfutabili, di non avere commesso. Uno psicologo che afferma di credere al condannato trascorre ore nella sua cella nel Braccio della Morte, e infine assiste, tra gli spettatori, alla letale iniezione. Terminato questo lavoro, lo psicologo rientra a New York dove ha affari in sospeso. Nel frattempo, Scudder ha accettato di indagare sull'amante di una sua amica, conosciuto on-line, e chiaramente sospetto. Sembra semplice. All'inizio. Ma quando delle persone cominciano a morire, e le vittime sono sempre più vicine a loro, diventa chiaro che sono opera del pervertito killer. E il bersaglio finale potrebbero essere Matt ed Elaine Scudder. La suspense è mozzafiato, l'esito sempre incerto. Una serie che ha prodotto un grande numero di riconoscimenti e premi - l'Edgar, lo  Shamus, il Philip Marlowe, il Maltese Falcon - arriva a una nuova vertiginosa altezza. In questo romanzo Lawrence Block, che ha recentemente ricevuto il premio  Diamond Dagger per tutta la sua carriera dalla Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom, è al top della forma. Luigi Garlaschelli desidera ringraziare Emanuela Guizzo per l'attenta correzione delle bozze. Recensioni-AUDIOFILE MAGAZINE:"Con un titolo preso dalla ballata irlandese "Danny Boy", il sedicesimo romanzo avente per protagonista Matthew Scudder è il più dark che Lawrence Block abbia scritto da anni. Dopo che una donna conosciuta a una riunione degli Alcolisti Anonimi gli chiede di indagare sul  background del suo nuovo boyfriend, il cammino di Scudder  si incrocia con quello di un geniale serial killer che cambia ogni volta i suoi metodi e non lascia virtualmente alcuna traccia della propria identità". PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"Matt Scudder, lo straordinario detective privato creato da Block, protagonista di molti best-seller, è sulla breccia da trent'anni; e se invecchiando la sua vita non è stata gentile e delicata, certamente è stata densa di avvenimenti. In questa sedicesima straordinaria uscita (dopo Spera di Morire del 2001), Scudder, che ha ora sessant'anni e più, dimostra di essere duro e resistente come sempre, quando si trova ad affrontare il più astuto e subdolo killer che abbia mai messo alla prova il suo coraggio. I fan di Scudder non saranno sorpresi nello scoprire che il killer è collegato ai delitti irrisolti di Spera di Morire, né che Elaine e Scudder siano diventati il bersaglio dell'assassino. La narrazione si sposta senza fatica dal punto di vista di Scudder al pensiero e alle azioni del killer, la cui astuzia, coraggio e pura crudeltà marchiano a fuoco le pagine. Aggiungete dei brillanti colpi di scena e otterrete un'ottima miscela di brividi, creata da un maestro dello scrivere, qua nella sua forma migliore."

Un Campo di Fiori Morti - Matthew Scudder, #16

Sheesh. What a lousy title. Flesh Mob was published by Midnight Reader, a fellow imprint of Nightstand Books, in 1962. I can tell at a glance that it's my work, although I don't specifically recall writing it. And I must have put a title on it, but I  an assure you that it wasn't Flesh Mob. It could only have been the inspiration of some editor in Illinois. Several notables filled that role over the years, including Earl Kemp, A. J. Budrys, and Harlan Ellison, but it's hard to imagine any of those three making a eureka moment of Flesh Mob. For years it struck me as merely a bad title, two works that when combined had a sort of reverse synergy, amounting to rather less than the sum of their parts. Then just this week I looked at the title and saw that it could only be a pun on the phrase "flash mob." That still didn't make it a good title, but at least it gave it a lame reason for being. Except not. Because a little internet research shows that "flash mob" came into existence, as both phrase and concept, sometime shortly after the turn of the present century, and approximately forty years after my humble little novel first appeared wherever bad books were sold. AJ and Harlan and Earl were grounded in science fiction, but that's not enough to account for a title that was a pun on a phrase nobody would utter for another four decades. Never mind. The book's a multiple-viewpoint novel, with a rich cast of characters. Here's a sample of two of them:#"I'M LEAVING MATT, " Kitty said. Linc digested this bit of information. She searched his face, trying to decide whether he approved or disapproved. His face was a mask. She couldn't tell how he felt about it. "I'm leaving him, " she said again. "He didn't even come home last night. And the fact doesn't even bother me. There's not a thing left between us, Linc. Nothing at all. He can go his way and I can go mine and neither of us gives a whoop in hell about the other one. That's no basis for marriage." "Will he give you a divorce?" "I think so. He barely knows I'm alive. He'll probably be glad to get rid of me." Linc shrugged. "His pride might be hurt. And he might be upset from a pure financial standpoint. Divorce can be costly to a man. Alimony." "I wouldn't want alimony from him." "Oh?" "Just freedom." He said: "What will you do after the divorce?" "Oh, " she said. "I don't know. I may stay in Clifton, at least until I decide where I want to go next. New York eventually, I think. Small towns can get to you. I think I'm ready for the city." "You'd fit right in." "But for the time being we can have our fun. Do you feel like. like some fun now, Linc?" "God, you're insatiable." "I've been inactive for a long time, " she told him. "Too long. It can get to you. Are you interested, Linc?" "I'll race you to the bedroom, " he said.#There you go, Gentle Reader. Flesh Mob. It is what it is.

Flesh Mob - Collection of Classic Erotica, #25

Quand Kenan Khoury reçoit un coup de fil anonyme exigeant une rançon s'il veut revoir sa femme en vie, il n'hésite pas une seconde à payer. Mais c'est dans le coffre d'une voiture et sous forme de pièces détachées sanguinolentes que notre homme la retrouve. Le problème est que Khoury, dealer notoire de Brooklyn, veut rester loin du regard de la police. C'est donc tout naturellement qu'il fait appel au célèbre détective privé et ancien flic alcoolique Matt Scudder. A l'aide d'acolytes hauts en couleur comme Manhattan en regorge - un apprenti rappeur, de jeunes hackers, sans oublier la belle Elaine -, Matt se jette corps et âme dans une enquête qui fait rapidement surgir de nouvelles pièces d'un puzzle macabre, bien plus complexe que prévu. Et lorsqu'une autre femme disparaît, c'est une course contre la mort qui s'engage...

Balade entre les tombes

From Publishers Weekly:"Standouts include Dennis Lehane's gilt-edged chiller, 'A Bostonian (in Cambridge), ' in which a wealthy collector of letters of abandonment falls prey to wily blackmailers, and Joe R. Lansdale's 'The Skull Collector, ' a gangster yarn featuring gun-toting female grave robbers. Overshadowing everything, though, is Lee Goldberg's 'Lost Shows, ' a delightful shocker about a fanatical collector of short-lived and unaired TV shows who has turned his Hollywood home into a mausoleum of lost dreams." A COLLECTION. OF COLLECTIONS What leads one person to collect stamps and another coins, one fine art and another butterflies? Who can say? But one thing is certain: those who've got the collecting bug care passionately-sometimes violently-about the objects of their obsession. No one covets like a collector; and as you will find in the pages of this brand new anthology from MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block, a truly dedicated collector will ignore the other nine commandments, too, in his quest for his personal Holy Grail. From Joyce Carol Oates' tale of the ultimate Marilyn Monroe collectible to Dennis Lehane's bookseller with a penchant for other people's tragic correspondence, from Lee Goldberg's Hollywood hustler with a collection of unaired TV shows to Joe R. Lansdale's stylish foray into noir, culminating in Lawrence Block's own classic story of a killer with a unique approach to choosing his victims, Collectibles illustrates the range of the collecting impulse and the lengths people will go to in their hunger to possess the perfect piece.

Collectibles

Une fois par an, en mai, 31 hommes, ou ce qu'il en reste, se réunissent dans un grand restaurant de new york pour dîner ensemble.
 Et lire la liste de leurs morts.  c'est là leur seule obligation.  le dernier membre de ce club, qui remonterait au roi salomon, a de plus pour tâche de recruter 30 autres hommes afin qu'à nouveau l'on se réunisse, et compte ses morts.  des morts qui sont justement bien nombreux dans cette dernière fournée.  alerté par lewis hildebrand, matt scudder décide de mener l'enquête.

Tous les hommes morts

Seit seinem Debüt von 1977 hat sich Bernie Rhodenbarr die Zuneigung eines wachsenden internationalen Publikums erworben. Der unbekümmerte Langfinger, der sich mit seiner detektivischen Begabung aus den Klemmen zieht, in die ihn sein Geschick als Einbrecher bringt, gewinnt mehr und mehr die Herzen seiner Leser. Titel ist sein erster Auftritt. Über Bernies Anfänge weiß Autor Lawrence Block zu berichten: "Ich war arbeitslos und auch für keine feste Arbeit geeignet", erinnert er sich. "Und ich wusste nicht, was tun. Selbst die einfachsten Jobs schienen Erfahrungen zu erfordern, die ich nicht hatte. Und dann sagte eine stille innere Stimme: >Schließe nicht von vorneherein das Verbrechen aus.< Wenn du einen Liquor Store ausraubst, will vorher niemand deine Bewerbungsunterlagen sehen. "Je länger ich darüber nachdachte, desto deutlicher wurde mir klar, dass Einbruch nicht die schlechteste Wahl war. Man bestimmt selbst über seine Arbeitszeiten, man versucht, jeden menschlichen Kontakt zu vermeiden - nicht viel anders als ein Schriftsteller. Und wenn man erwischt wird, bekommt man wahrscheinlich erst einmal Bewährung oder eine kurze Haftstrafe - außerdem müssen sie einen durchfüttern, wenn man im Gefängnis sitzt. "Dann dachte ich, na schön, ich werde erwischt und lasse mich widerstandslos festnehmen, aber dann findet einer der Cops im Zimmer nebenan eine Leiche. Das wäre natürlich ein Problem. Ich dachte . und mein nächster Gedanke war: "Nein, das wäre ein Buch." Eine Woche später hatte ich drei Kapitel und ein Resümee geschrieben und an meinen Agenten geschickt. Es wurde vom ersten Verleger, der es zu sehen bekam, angenommen, und ich musste nicht mehr losziehen und mir einen Job suchen - oder in eine Wohnung einbrechen. "Deshalb kann ich ohne Übertreibung behaupten, dass mich Bernie Rhodenbarr vor einem Leben als Verbrecher bewahrt hat."

Ticket to the Boneyard

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