About the AuthorLawrence Block is a four-time winner of the Edgar Award and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. He has also won four Shamus Awards, and was the first recipient of the Nero Wolfe Award. He is the author of over 40 books, many of which feature the characters Bernie Rhodenbarr, Matthew Scudder, Chip Harrison, and Evan Tanner. He lives in New York City with his wife Lynne.From AudioFileSuspense writer Lawrence Block doesn't need to use the supernatural to give listeners the creeps. Mortal avarice, desperation and brutishness achieve the same effect in this gleefully misanthropic pulp fiction. Bruce Weitz, who played Belker on TV's "Hill Street Blues," has ghoulish fun with this collection, nicely giving character to the ample dialogue. Despite his adenoidal growl and occasional signs of hasty production, he's surprisingly expressive and easy to listen to. Particularly apt is his tone--as if he's sharing some cosmic dirty joke on the human race with a fellow avenging angel. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

THE SCORCHING PULP NOVEL BY LAWRENCE BLOCK, AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 50 YEARS! On the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. You'll meet   MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with...  MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds...  LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by... CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda...  and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket,  on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging! This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment--and of lines that were never meant to be crossed.**From BooklistHard Case Crime continues to resurrect Block’s early work, often written pseudonymously, from the 1950s and early ’60s. Gleefully mixing soft-core pornography with a thriller plot, Block churned out numerous of these bound-for-the-drugstore-paperback-rack quickies as he was gaining his sea legs for the more mature work that would come later. This one makes the most of its seedy border-town setting, jumping between El Paso and Juárez, as the paths of a gambler, divorcée, hitchhiker, stripper, and psycho killer come together in an inevitable bloodbath—but not before a series of steamy, yet surprisingly stylish, couplings (There was a beginning, bittersweet and almost painful. There was a middle, fast and furious, a scherzo movement in a symphony of fire. And there was an ending, gasping, spent, two bodies washed up on a lonely, barren beach.) Who knew what lurked on those paperback racks, nestled beside the sundries, awaiting the hungry eyes of surreptitious readers? And, yet, along with the titillation, Block’s inimitable craftsmanship shines through, along with flashes of his signature wit. --Bill Ott Review"A brutal story of sexual passion and bloody punishment." - Retrenders "This collection is a must-read for both established fans and those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of being introduced to Block’s work." - Crime Fiction Lover "Entertaining and twisted." - PopCults  "If you like your pulp fiction a bit on the raw side, you may want to make a trip to the Borderline. I’m glad I did." - Professor Mondo "it’s as raw and visceral as anything you’ll find in bookstores today." - October Country "Borderline is a visceral punch in the gut. It’s characters play their parts perfectly, rounding out the plot in a crime style that makes for a perfect, quick read. Block once again proves himself to be a Grand Master of mystery." - As The Plot Thins "An important addition to Block’s library and a must read for his fans." - Book Reporter “An edgy story pulsing with sex and violence; his wry sense of humor; a sobering sense of devastation; and all-around expertly crafted prose. what else can I say except it's an excellent story, up to Block's high standard.” – Pulp Serenade “Talk about your page turner. I read this, something I rarely do, in a single sitting just because of its bitter and brutal force. ...you see a great writer busy creating a realm exclusively his own.” – Ed Gorman’s Blog “Block’s inimitable craftsmanship shines through, along with flashes of his signature wit.” – Booklist "Packs plenty of vicarious thrills, sexual titillation, and taboo breaking." - Publisher's Weekly

Shadows, which was not only the debut of Jill Emerson but my own very first novel, is the story of a young woman, Jan Marlowe, who comes to New York fresh out of college, takes an apartment in the Bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village, and seeks to find herself—and specifically to come to terms with the puzzling question of sexual identity.Well then...One morning in the spring of 1958 I woke up in my room at the Hotel Alexandria with a paralyzing hangover (which was not unusual) and an idea for a book (which was). I sat in front of my typewriter, and within a few hours I had produced a chapter-by-chapter outline of a novel. I had all the characters sketched out and knew how they'd relate to one another, and how the rather elementary storyline would resolve itself. I even had a title: Shadows.At the time I was working as an editor at a shady literary agency, but I'd already arranged for my departure, as come fall I'd be resuming college in Ohio....

### Review “Block is one of the best!” —_The Washington Post_ ### Product Description Ariel Jardell, an adopted 12-year-old girl, is possessed, her mother thinks, by jealousy and by forces far more bizarre. An unnerving tale woven together with a fascinating, terrifying child at the center of each twist and turn it takes, this book gives new definition to the old conflict of good versus evil, sane versus insane.

SUMMARY: Bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr's in love—with an exotic Eastern European beauty who shares his obsession with Humphrey Bogart movies. He's in heaven, munching popcorn with his new amour every night at a Bogart Film Festival—until their Casablanca-esque idyll is cut short by his other secret passion: burglary. When he's hired to pilfer a portfolio of valuable documents from a Park Avenue apartment, Bernie can hardly refuse. But the occupant's early return forces Bernie to flee empty-handed—and he soon finds himself implicated in a murder. Before you can say "who stole the strawberries?" he's hunting for a killer, up to his neck in the outrageous intrigues of a tiny Balkan nation . . . and menaced by more sinister fat men and unsavory toadies than the great Bogie himself butted heads with in pursuit of that darn bird!