Lawrence Block's new collection assembles seven works of fiction produced over a period of 60 years. 

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.

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.

In this first in a series of wickedly funny mysteries, best-selling author Lawrence Block introduces Bernie Rhodenbarr, sometimes burglar, sometimes sleuth. Pulling only an occasional, very discreet job, Bernie manages to maintain his comfortable New York City apartment and keep his unorthodox vocation a closely-guarded secret. Every burglar knows never to trust anonymous phone calls. But when the caller offers easy money for an hour's work, Bernie can't ignore the job.

Matthew Scudder, a down-but-not-out-detective, is shocked by the apparent suicide of Paula, a waitress at Armstrong’s, one of Scudder’s hangouts. When Paula’s sister shows up and asks Matt to investigate what she believes to be a murder, Scudder agrees to take on the case. A number of clues don’t add up to suicide, and Scudder’s investigation leads him to the dark corners of Paula’s world.

French Quarter Vendetta is an old fashioned whodunit. Set in historic, fun loving New Orleans, the plot untangles a tale of murder, mystery, betrayal and jealousy. Follow along as Lieutenant James "Gator" McNeal and his team wade through a list of suspects that include a union president, a state senator's wife, a jealous mistress, a spoiled stepson, an ambitious assistant, a union thug and even a street kid and two-bit drug dealer.

George Olsen's life is one big lie. As a witness in a mob-money-embezzlement-operation-turned-deadly, he lives within the WITSEC program and has had plenty of trouble adapting to life. Never look back: It’s one of the sacred rules within the WITSEC program. But when he hears an old flame has moved back to New Mexico and is in danger, he is forced to return to his old stomping grounds only to discover that decision could prove to be fatal.

Name: Brown (just Brown, ma’am). Physical Appearance/Demeanor: Bear (That’s grizzly - consider yourself warned.). Occupation: Private Dick. Clients: San Antonio’s Finest, area’s most notorious gang boss, hitmen, world renowned artists, Olmos Elementary School entire third grade class. Cases: Find some body and return them to their forever home. Find wife-beating boyfriend before contracted hitman does. Perform background checks on the bad guys. Find lost animals.

A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune - the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation. 

H. J. Mavity, painter of paperback romance covers, has a perplexing riddle to solve when her ex-boyfriend, Rick Dell, collapses at her feet after telling her that the words "ninety-nine clop clop" hold the clue to a lot of money. Although Dell has clearly been murdered, H. J.'s avarice gets the better of her and she determines to risk the ire of whoever has killed Dell to go after the money. First, however, she must understand the riddle and who better to help her than her ex-husband, Ben Spanner, a gifted mimic whose voice is known to millions through TV and radio commercials.

At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age—that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.

Shane Ryan knows all about pain and suffering. A retired Marine gunnery sergeant, Shane has seen the worst humanity has to offer. He survived his ordeal, but his soul has been tainted by the darkness, leaving him with a permanent connection to the world of the supernatural. Shane sees the spirits of the dead. He hears their whispered cries of pain. And it’s a gift he plans to put to good use, when he travels to Detroit to investigate the death of one woman who saw through all the darkness in his heart. A woman who became his lover, many years ago. 

The image of bloodshed in his office remained etched in Mike Hammer's mind forever - his secretary sprawled on the floor and a stranger sitting dead and mutilated at his own desk. In one moment a storm of madness entered the private eye's life. As he starts hunting for the killer, Hammer is haunted by the message left on his desk: "You die for killing me." Suddenly, he is in too deep with a lethal blonde who has big ideas, a CIA secret, and another set of murders.

New York City, 1946. No one knows his real name, but when the job is too dirty, too dangerous, they call Kissyman. Once an elite Nazi SS commando, an honorable soldier, a taker of lives. When he was assigned to Dachau and saw what he was actually fighting for, he went AWOL and ran as far away as he could - to America. He still makes his living with a gun, but he no longer kills for his country. Now, he kills for cash.

A reformed ex-con is the victim of a vicious killer. Mike Hammer goes gunningfor justice, but a beautiful woman keeps getting in his way.

A reformed ex-con is the victim of a vicious killer. Mike Hammer goes gunningfor justice, but a beautiful woman keeps getting in his way.

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

In this first in a series of wickedly funny mysteries, best-selling author Lawrence Block introduces Bernie Rhodenbarr, sometimes burglar, sometimes sleuth. Pulling only an occasional, very discreet job, Bernie manages to maintain his comfortable New York City apartment and keep his unorthodox vocation a closely-guarded secret. Every burglar knows never to trust anonymous phone calls. But when the caller offers easy money for an hour's work, Bernie can't ignore the job.

The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.

Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem, as well. So far he's rid of the world of nobody who would be missed. But this time he finds himself zeroing in on the grieving family of a missing cheerleader. Does the hitman's hitman have the wrong quarry in his sights?

It’s tough working nights with the NYPD. The crime rate is high, the hours are terrible, and forget about a personal life. So, when Officer O’Reilly and her K-9 Rolf switch over to the day shift, things look up. She’s even able to find time for a new boyfriend. But when the theft of a priceless painting from the Queens Museum leaves a fellow police officer dead, Erin and her four-legged partner find themselves dealing with dangerous criminals, sleazy art dealers, and obstructive detectives in a race to capture the killers...and just maybe bring closure to a 75-year-old crime.

Her voice was like whiskey, smooth and potent, but it was her contradictions that fascinated Detective Boyd Fletcher - the vulnerability beneath her tough-as-nails facade.

Cops can make mistakes, even when they're not rookies. Deeply traumatized by a shooting incident, Cass Raines resigned from the Chicago PD, leaving one less female African-American on the force. Now she's the head of a one-woman private investigation agency. She also plays chess with the only father figure she's ever known, Father Ray Heaton. When Father Ray asks Cass to look into a recent spate of vandalism at his church, she readily agrees to handle the case. But only hours later she's horrified to discover his murdered body in the church confessional, a dead gangbanger sprawled out nearby.

The first time single father Spence Kimball set eyes on Natasha Stanislaski, he was floored by her exotic beauty. But the former ballet dancer turned toy shop owner had a fiery temperament that kept men safely at bay. Sensing a hidden wound, Spence and his little girl joined forces to find a way into her closely guarded heart. For Spence realized he'd do anything to tame Natasha's fears...and show her how to love.

It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation. 

Three months have passed since Emery Hazard and John-Henry Somerset faced a madman and lived to tell about it. Three months have passed since Emery Hazard resigned from his job as a detective.Three months can be too long and too short, all at the same time. On Halloween, a professor at the local college is murdered in his apartment in front of dozens of witnesses. Then, the killer disappears. Somers is assigned the case and a new partner. While Somers investigates the murder, Hazard struggles to find purpose in his new freedom.

It's 1949. When war veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole with a short list of dos and a much longer list of don'ts: do report regularly to his parole officer, don't go to bars, certainly don't drink alcohol, do get a job - and don't ever associate with loose women. The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer's years serving in the war or his time in jail.