One Night Stands and Lost Weekends

This collection of 25 short stories and three novellas represents the apprenticeship years of Edgar-winner Lawrence Block, written, as the author explains in the introduction, when "my typewriter still had training wheels." The first half of the collection, stories written between 1958 and 1961, are cliché-ridden samples of pulp writing composed by a still-maturing writer. Scott Brick and Mike Chamberlain are unable to help these works. But John H. Mayer, the third of three alternating readers, puts a gruff, wry edge to his voice, making the stories enjoyable. Robert Forster, of the 1970s TV program "Banyon" and, more recently, "Heroes," steals the show with his reading of the three novellas featuring private eye Ed London. These pieces, all originally published in 1963, are gems of private eye writing. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

September 29, 2008
First published in two volumes by Crippen & Landru in 1999, this collection of early crime stories from bestseller Block (Hit and Run
) is a mixed bag. Part one consists of 25 unremarkable tales, including Block's sole foray into science fiction. Offering no defense of their quality in his frank introduction, the author admits that he hasn't reread these stories in decades. Even devoted fans will struggle not to lose patience at encountering yet another grim account of a brutal misogynist who ends up on the wrong end of a gun or a knife. By contrast, the three novellas featuring New York City PI Ed London, starting with “The Naked and the Deadly,” are taut classic hard-boiled noir, with the gumshoe tangling with treacherous women and lying clients. Closer to the MWA Grand Master's usual level, they blend suspense, a puzzle and an appropriately cynical first-person narrative voice, and will leave even newcomers hungry for more.