Lawrence Block has 89 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 50 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 41 ratings. The most-rated is The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons.
A Moment of Wrong Thinking
Summary
After a night out with friends, Matthew Scudder is reminded of an enigmatic case he had while still working as uniformed policeman. The case in question involves the suicide of a devout Catholic man in front of his wife and children... or was it a murder?
©2011 Lawrence Block (P)2012 AudioGO
Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man
Summary
"This is either the funniest dirty book or the dirtiest funny book ever written!" (Isaac Asimov) Somewhere around 1969, I began to grow dissatisfied with the underlying principle of most novels - that a disembodied voice in the first or third person was telling us a story. I liked the idea of novels passing themselves off as documents and drew inspiration from Mark Harris's Wake Up, Stupid and Sue Kaufman's Diary of a Mad Housewife, the first, ostensibly a collection of letters, the second, duh, a diary. (One could, of course, go back further, to the very beginnings of the English novel in the works of Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson.) I also found myself interested in writing with greater candor about sexual topics. I had knocked out dozens of soft-core paperbacks, and wanted to try anew with greater freedom and more realism. I wrote three paperback original novels for Berkley under the pen name Jill Emerson, two of them in diary form, the third a presumed collaborative novel written in concert by the three viewpoint characters. These were fun to do and worked out well, and they led to Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man. I riffed on the experience of my friend George Dickerson, who, like the novel's protagonist, had the magazine he was editing folded out from under him. George went on reporting to his empty office for several months, until they found him out when they noticed he'd stopped using his expense account. A man of many talents, George went on to serve as a reporter for Time Magazine for several years, then segued into a career as an actor; he had a principal role in Blue Velvet.) I spliced in an experience of my own, when I drank for hours at the Kettle of Fish on Macdougal Street, emerging only to be picked up by a carful of rich Catholic schoolgirls from the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Noroton, Connecticut, who essentially kidnapped me and drove me back to school with them. These things happen. I wrote the book in four furious days in an apartment on West 35th Street. I did so, thinking it would be another pseudonymous paperback, and that no doubt gave me the freedom to write it as I did; after it was written, the friends who read it liked it so much that I was persuaded to publish it as a hardcover novel, and under my own name. My agent sent it to Bernard Geis, a quirky publisher whose editor - Don Preston - loved the book. Bernie had offices on two floors in midtown Manhattan, and had installed a fireman's pole in case one wanted to get from 9 to 8 in a hurry. All I recall of Don is he told me to avoid seeing Carnal Knowledge, which he hated, and that I must hurry to see McCabe and Mrs.Miller, which he loved. Once I'd managed to sit through McCabe and Mrs. Miller, I knew I'd love Carnal Knowledge. Around the time the story was published, Bernard Geis slid into chapter 11. I can't think this had a salutary effect on sales. Martin Levin in The New York Times book review pointed out that the book was written in the form of a series of letters, which was also the case with Richardson's Pamela, generally acknowledged to be the first English novel. And that, Mr. Levin said, was as much as he had to say on the subject. Well, that's fair. I had the publisher send a copy to Isaac Asimov, whom I'd met a few times over the years. "That's either the funniest dirty book or the dirtiest funny book I've ever read," Isaac told me. "That would make a wonderful blurb," I said. "Over my dead body," he replied. Well, okay. Isaac's been gone over 25 years now, and while I wish he were still around, he's not. And so, I'll just remember him fondly, and thank him for giving Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man a helping hand, all these years later.
©1971, 2015 Lawrence Block (P)2020 Lawrence Block
The Girl with the Long Green Heart
Summary
She was every man's dream - and one man's nightmare. Johnny Hayden and Doug Rance had a scheme to take real estate entrepreneur Wallace Gunderman for all he was worth. But they needed a girl on the inside to make it work. Enter Evelyn Stone: Gunderman's secretary, his lover - and his worst enemy. Gunderman had promised to marry her, but never came through. Now she's ready to make him pay...
©1965 Fawcett Publications, Inc. (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks America
The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams
Summary
Fans will rejoice as New York's most charming burglar returns to action. Greenwich Village bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr has perfected the art of breaking and entering, as well as that of clever repartee. Bernie gets plenty of opportunity to exercise both his wit and his lock-picking muscles, as he juggles old friends, new "employees," potential girlfriends, and various criminal charges. Bernie is seriously considering retiring from his life of crime, now that his used bookstore is finally turning a small profit. Then his nasty new landlord raises the rent - by $10,000 a month - and Bernie is hard pressed to resist the temptation to supplement his income. But when a dead body turns up, and an invaluable baseball card collection is missing, who will believe that Bernie had nothing to do with it? Narrator Richard Ferrone's deadpan delivery offers the perfect contrast to Bernie's giddy misadventures. It would be a crime to miss this fabulous performance.
©1994 Lawrence Block (P)1999 Recorded Books LLC
Small Town
Summary
As a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and multiple Edgar Award winner, Block is one of the premier crime writers of the 20th century. He has written over 50 novels, and five different mystery series. A stand-alone mystery, Small Town just so happens to be one of Block’s best yet! Here, he delivers a mesmerizing thriller that wholly embraces New York, the city he knows and loves so well. Characters include a writer on the verge of a breakthrough, a charismatic ex-police commissioner on the verge of a mental collapse, a folk art dealer plumbing the depths of her own ferocious sexuality, and a quirky lawyer who prefers murder trials because there’s one less witness. And in the shadows of a city reeling from the September 11th terrorist attacks, an unlikely mass murderer begins to wage a one-man war against all.
©2003 Lawrence Block (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC
Borderline
Summary
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 - available for the first time in 50 years!
©1962, 2014 Lawrence Block (P)2014 Lawrence Block
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian
Summary
By day, Bernie Rhodenbarr runs a respectable used book store in New York City. But by night, he gets his kicks gaining illegal entry into the posh residences of the wealthy. In this wacky mystery, the incorrigible burglar pulls off a low-risk burglary, only to find himself up against an eccentric kidnapper with a taste for abstract Dutch art. When Bernie is offered the chance to appraise a Manhattan millionaire's private library, he jumps at the opportunity. After all, how often does he get a chance to check out the holdings of the rich and famous and get paid at the same time? But when he returns later to help himself to some plunder, he finds he's been framed for some very nasty crimes. Named a Grandmaster by the Mystery Writers of America, best-selling author Lawrence Block has won almost every major mystery award, including three Edgar and four Shamus Awards. His action-packed plot and irresistible characters, dramatically performed by Richard Ferrone, make this audiobook an irresistible work of art.
©1993 Lawrence Block (P)1999 Recorded Books, LLC
The Specialists
Summary
Albert Platt is a rotten man. Bred in the rough parts of Brooklyn, he made his name as a killer and has built a fortune from gambling, loan sharking, and the other pastimes of a standard thug. His latest gambit? Buying banks, robbing them, and collecting the insurance. He's a hard man, and no one ever stood in his way until he brushed up against Eddie Manso. Manso is no ordinary veteran. He and four other commandos, battle-hardened in the jungles of Laos, have found that the civilian world demands their talents as much as the military once did. These specialists have made a living targeting vicious men whom the law cannot touch, dismantling their empires and taking their plunder. And Albert Platt has just entered their crosshairs.
©1969 Fawcett Publications, Inc (P)2011 AudioGO
The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep
Summary
Introducing Evan Tanner - the first series character created by Lawrence Block, best-selling author of A Walk Among the Tombstones... Ever since a shred of shrapnel did a number on his brain's sleep center, Even Tanner has been awake 24/7. This gives him more time than your average underachiever. Time to learn the world's languages (he's fluent in Basque, but has trouble with Chinese). Time to embrace the world's lost causes and irredentist movements (The Flat Earth Society, the League for the Restoration of Cilician Armenia, the Society of the Left Hand). Time to write term papers theses for students with more money than knowledge. And, most important, time to do his dreaming while he's wide awake. The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep is Tanner's first adventure. It finds our insomniacal hero on a mission to recover a hoard of gold coins, stashed 50 years ago in a house in Balekesir by the city's Armenian community. Promptly jailed by the Turks, Tanner escapes and plays hopscotch across the map of Europe, pulling strings, slipping across borders, and, almost incidentally, fomenting a revolution in Macedonia. Well, these things happen...
©1966 Lawrence Block (P)2017 Lawrence Block
Murderers' Row: Original Baseball Mysteries, Volume 1
Summary
Seven original baseball short stories in the mystery and murder genres, written by an all-star lineup of writers, each of whom understand the game's lore and tactical nuances as well as its deep roots in American life. Compiled by Otto Penzler, the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and regarded as the world's foremost authority on crime, mystery and suspense fiction. Stories include: "Keller's Designated Hitter" by Lawrence Block - Professional hitman John Keller is after a pro ballplayer whose hitting average hasn't kept up with his expensive contract. "Pinch Hitter, A Nathan Heller Story" by Max Allan Collins - Fact and fiction mix in this preposterous and amusing whodunit. When bold Bill Veeck brings the first midget, Eddie Gaedel, into baseball as a pinch-hitter and he is found dead, private eye Nat Heller investigates. "Two Bagger" by Michael Connelly - Connelly pens a gripping and emotional father-son story of an ex-con who meets a pair of cops while at a Dodger game. "Strike Zone" by K.C. Constantine - Ex-pitcher goes on a stone-throwing rampage. "A Family Game" by Brendan DuBois - Youth baseball causes great turmoil in the life of a former mobster under witness protection in a small rural town. "Chickasaw Charlie Hoke" by Elmore Leonard - The little lies of an aging former ballplayer become vividly painful when he exaggerates about his pitiful career. "Sacrifice Hit" by John Lescroart - What ghastly adult passions arise when a Little League benchwarmer, who saw more time in the dugout than in the game, suddenly dies of a rattlesnake bite while his team is preparing for the game that will decide who will go to the Little League World Series.
©2001 Otto Penzler (P)2001 / 2017 New Millennium Entertainment / Phoenix Books
Deadly Honeymoon
Summary
Raped on her wedding night, a bride must take her own vengeance. Dave and Jill Wade come to Pennsylvania, the ink still wet on their marriage license, expecting three weeks of lakeside honeymooning bliss. All is lovely until gunshots shatter their first night together. Killers have come for the man in the next cabin, and afterward they decide to silence the happy couple, battering Dave and dragging his virgin bride into the dead man's bedroom. The Wades say nothing to the police, but afterward take a second set of vows: death for the men who ruined their honeymoon. They set out for New York, ready to take on the city's mobsters as they consecrate their marriage in blood.
©1967 Lawrence Block (P)2011 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Burglar on the Prowl
Summary
Acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Lawrence Block returns with the extraordinary Bernie Rhodenbarr. Antiquarian bookseller by day, burglar by night, Bernie has an innate knack, a gift, for getting into places designed to keep him out. Bernie is a gentleman who knows and loves his territory, the gloriously diverse streets of Manhattan; a connoisseur who surrounds himself with the finer things in life, including his tailless Manx tabby, Raffles, and good friends like his neighbor, Carolyn. In fact, it's a friend that gets him in his latest jam. Bernie is asked for a favor, a neat, uncomplicated bit of vengeful larceny that will reap a tidy profit, an offer the intrepid thief can't refuse. A few days before the crime, Bernie gets restless. What does a burglar do to change his mood? Go on the prowl. This bit of prowling lands Bernie in a pile of trouble that includes four murders and the burglary of his own home. Caught in the center of a deadly mystery, he must use his wits and wiles to connect the dots and add up the coincidences. Because if Bernie doesn't catch a killer, he'll lose not only his freedom but his life. Infused with the rich atmosphere of New York City and filled with a smart, charming cast of characters headed by the stylish Bernie, The Burglar on the Prowl is an engaging and delightfully suspenseful tale sure to be savored by Block fans old and new.
©2001 Laurence Block (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes
Summary
Florida private eye Doak Miller agreed to help the local cops by posing as a hit man to catch a woman looking to get rid of her husband. But then he met the wife - and fell, hard. Now he's plotting with her to commit a murder that could net them millions of dollars and the chance to be together. But to pull it off under the watchful eyes of the police, it'll have to be the perfect crime....
©2015 Lawrence Block (P)2015 Recorded Books
Everybody Dies
Summary
Best-selling author Lawrence Block transports you to New York City to walk the shadowy back streets with P.I. Matt Scudder, ex-cop and recovering alcoholic. In Everybody Dies, Matt is finally leading a comfortable, almost respectable life - until he helps an unlikely friend uncover a nameless enemy. The Big Apple seems to be mellowing, now that the crime rate is down and gentrification is sweeping the old neighborhoods. But when a hoodlum buddy from the past asks Matt to investigate the murders of two employees, the spruced-up sidewalks seem as mean as ever. Suddenly, Matt finds himself in a world where every step leads him through a mine field, and no man's survival can be taken for granted. Well-crafted characters, action-packed plots, and gritty, realistic settings have earned Lawrence Block multiple Edgar and Shamus Awards. With his dramatic performance, narrator Mark Hammer expertly captures all the restless rhythms and street-smart language.
©2007 Lawrence Block (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC
Hit Me
Summary
The conclusion of Hit and Run found Keller living in a big old house in post-Katrina New Orleans' Lower Garden District, with a new name (Nicholas Edwards), a new wife (Julia), a new career (rehabbing houses), and a baby on the way. It certainly looked as though he was done killing people for money. But old habits die hard, and when the economic downturn knocked out the construction business, a phone call from Dot draws him back into the old game. His work takes him to Dallas, to settle a domestic dispute; to Florida, where he joins a government witness on a West Indies cruise; to Wyoming, where a widow has her husband's stamp collection for sale; and to New York, where he lived for so many years, and where people might remember him.
©2013 Lawrence Block (P)2013 Recorded Books
Keller's Fedora
Summary
In this brand-new novella, Keller, everyone's favorite assassin for hire, is Chicago-bound on Amtrak's City of New Orleans, ready to do what he does best. But it's complicated. Usually there's someone ready to point him toward the target. Or he'll have a photo, say. Or, bare minimum, a name and address. Not this time. When he gets to Baker's Bluff, Illinois, he'll have to play private detective before he can get down to business. Well, okay. He knows how it works. So before he boards his train, before he even packs his suitcase, Keller buys a fedora. Keller, a faithful husband, doting father, and dedicated philatelist, has become a guilty pleasure for an increasing number of listeners. They don't think they should like the guy - but they just can't help themselves. Cover design by Adil Dara.
©2016 Lawrence Block (P)2016 Lawrence Block
Grifter's Game
Summary
Con man Joe Berlin was used to scoring easy cash off of gullible women. But that was before he met Mona Brassard - and found himself holding a stolen stash of raw heroin. Now that Joe has fallen hard for Mona, he's got to pull off the most dangerous con of his career: one that will leave him either a killer - or a corpse. Block's debut novel under his own name is a classic example of prime pulp fiction, with an ending that will astonish even the most jaded crime-fiction fan.
©1961 Lawrence Block (P)2009 BBC Audio
Defender of the Innocent
Summary
The criminal defense lawyer. Redefined. Martin H. Ehrengraf, dapper and diabolical, may be Lawrence Block's darkest creation. He's the defense attorney who never sees the inside of a courtroom, because all his clients are innocent - no matter how guilty they may seem. Some even believe themselves to be guilty: They remember pulling the trigger, or wiring the dynamite to their spouse's car, or holding the bloody blade. But things have a way of working out when Martin Ehrengraf is on the case. Evidence turns up, incriminating someone else. More murders occur, with the same M.O. And the gate of the jail cell opens, and the accused walks free. But be careful - hiring Martin Ehrengraf comes with a price. A high price, one that comes due even if he appears to have done nothing on your behalf. And you'd better be prepared to pay... Here at last are the complete exploits of Martin Ehrengraf: a dozen delicious tales of vice and villainy including one - ''The Ehrengraf Fandango'' - that is appearing for the first time anywhere. It's a 12-course meal of sinister surprises, exquisitely prepared and served simmering hot by the greatest living master of mystery fiction.
©2014 Lawrence Block (P)2014 Lawrence Block
You Could Call It Murder
Summary
A missing person case brings private eye Roy Markham to the remote winter-bound college town of Cliff's End, New Hampshire. But what began as a routine investigation quickly becomes dark and dangerous. Six pornographic photos and a tidy little blackmail scheme result in a brutal and baffling murder, and no one is safe - especially Markham himself.
©1961 Lawrence Block. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO
Cinderella Sims
Summary
There's no glass slipper in this fairy tale - just a damsel in distress, a bag of cash, and a whole lot of dead bodies. Reporter Ted Lindsay is trying to forget his ex-wife, and New York City's tough streets are just what the doctor ordered. They're also filled with alluring women, but only one catches Ted's eye. Cinderella Sims is not only beautiful, she's on the run and she needs Ted's help. She's got a bag full of cash and some very angry people staking out her apartment. Before long Ted's forgotten his heartbreak and is launched into the dark streets of crime with Cindy at his side. The author speaks: “Look, this wasn’t my idea. Three or four years ago, Bill Schafer suggested that I might give some consideration to republishing a book of mine called $20 Lust, which had originally appeared under a pen name. I recalled the book he meant, but dimly; I had, after all, written it in 1960. But I didn’t need to remember it all that vividly to know the answer to his suggestion. No, I told him. A little later I suggested he might want to publish a fancy edition of Mona, the first book under my own name; it had come out as a paperback original in 1961, and we could celebrate its fortieth anniversary with a nice limited edition hardcover. Bill was lukewarm to the notion, but had an alternative proposal; how about issuing a double volume, containing Mona and $20 Lust? Once again, I didn’t have to do a lot of soul-searching to come up with a response. No, I told him. Time passed. Then Ed Gorman, the Sage of Cedar Rapids, used an ancient private eye novelette of mine in a pulp anthology. When it came out he sent me a copy, and, while I didn’t read my novelette - I figured it was enough that I wrote the damned thing - I did read his introduction, which I found to be thoughtful and incisive and generous. I e-mailed him and told him so, and he e-mailed me back and thanked me, adding that my early work was probably better than I thought. And, he added, "I really think you ought to let Bill Schafer publish $20 Lust. I felt as though I’d been sucker-punched. Where the hell did that come from? So I got in touch with Bill. I suppose I could at least read it, I said, except I can’t, because I don’t have a copy. Three days later, a battered copy arrived in the mail. I looked at the first two pages, and I looked at the last two or three pages, and I heaved a sigh. Heaved it clear across the room, and would have heaved the book, too, but instead I hollered for my wife. Bill Schafer wants to reprint this, I said. Great, she said. Not necessarily, I said, and explained the circumstances. I’d like you to read this, I said, or as much of it as you can without gagging, and then tell me it’s utter crap and I’d surely destroy what little reputation I have if I consent to its republication. Suppose I like it? Not to worry, I said. I’ll sign the commitment papers, and I’ll make sure they take real good care of you. Well, she liked it. And Bill Schafer published it, and a lot of people liked it, and my agent sold it in France, where even more people liked it. Shows what I know. And it’s now my pleasure to include it in the Classic Crime Library. Cinderella Sims was originally intended to be my second crime novel for Gold Medal, to follow Grifter’s Game (aka Mona). At some point along the way I lost faith in it, and wrapped it up in a hurry, and sold it to Nightstand Books. Hope y’all enjoy it!
©2016 Lawrence Block (P)2020 Lawrence Block