Lawrence Block would rather you not read ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS. After all, it’s not his best work — and he tells you that right up front. At least there’s a good reason for it: This anthology represents his earliest work of super-short stories, cranked out for men’s magazines of the 50s and 60s. Understandably, he’s more than a little critical of stuff he wrote decades before he really knew what he was doing. (Hell, I sometimes cringe at things I’ve written a week ago.)
But curiosity rises above any mediocrity, and Block fans will want it regardless. Considering the $14.95 price tag, they’ll be amply rewarded. Some of the stories exhibit a real clever streak, like “Just Window Shopping,” told from the point of view of a serial Peeping Tom who’s taken one eyeful too many.
“Frozen Stiff” is a new take on the cuckolded-spouse concept, with a wronged butcher plotting revenge on his wife that certainly takes a slice of the unique cake, and “Ride a White Horse” chronicles a guy’s love affair with a girl who deals smack — a career choice he begrudgingly accepts because he can’t live without her. Meanwhile, “Bride of Violence” is a disturbing tale of a rape that occurs while the victim’s boyfriend can do little but watch; its table-turning, shock-for-shock’s-sake ending is something today’s more mature Block likely wouldn’t pen.
In these tales and roughly less than two dozen others lie glimpses of the Block to come — not just in diabolical plots with crack timing, but playful turns of phrase and hardboiled metaphors like “as queer as rectangular eggs” (the first of many references to the breakfast item, followed closely by breasts that threaten to burst through items of clothing). His then-green experience rears its head here and there, in opening lines that fail to hook (“The shorter of the two boys had wiry black hair and a twisted smile”) and a tendency to use the same names in a couple of stories (i.e. Benny, Brad, Rita), but both come with the territory and are expected.
Closing out the collection is a trio of three longer stories, all starring droll private investigator Ed London. He’s no Keller or Scudder or Rhodenbarr, but he’s a Block creation through and through. In “The Naked and the Deadly,” he’s hired by a woman claiming to be blackmailed, and then approached by guys seeking a missing person: his blackmailed client. Yep, things are not what they seem (one clue: the client’s willingness to fuck on the first meeting).
The intriguingly titled “Stag Party Girl” kicks off with a man at his bachelor party, where the stripper is shot dead. Oh, and she happens to be his mistress! Finally, “Twin Call Girls” refers to a pair of prostitutes someone wants killed. One-half is offed, at least, so the other half hires London to find out who and why. (One guess as to how she pays …)
ONE NIGHT STANDS is not the book for Block newbies, but like an early Christmas gift for his regular, devoted readers. —Rod Lott
“It was very soft and very warm. It rubbed its hips against me and purred like a kitten. I growled like a randy old tomcat. ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ it said. ‘I’ve been wanting to go to bed. Take me to bed, Ed London.’ … We were a pair of iron filings and my bed was a magnet. … Her body welcomed me. Her breasts, firm little cones of happiness, quivered against me. Her thighs enveloped me in the lust-heat of desire. Her face twisted in a blind agony of need.”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY by Lawrence Block
• THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE by Lawrence Block
• THE BURGLAR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BOGART by Lawrence Block
• A DANCE AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE by Lawrence Block
• A DIET OF TREACLE by Lawrence Block
• THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block
• GRIFTER’S GAME by Lawrence Block
• HIT AND RUN by Lawrence Block
• HIT PARADE by Lawrence Block
• LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block
• ME TANNER, YOU JANE by Lawrence Block
• THE SCORELESS THAI by Lawrence Block
• TANNER ON ICE by Lawrence Block
• TANNER’S TIGER by Lawrence Block
• TANNER’S TWELVE SWINGERS by Lawrence Block
• TANNER’S VIRGIN by Lawrence Block
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