The case of Lawrence Block it is strange in terms of its international diffusion. Being officially considered in the United States an author of black novels and mystery plots at the height of the same Stephen King, it does not reach far its repercussion beyond the borders of the USA.
Perhaps it is some untranslatable aspect that has an impact on the unwanted effect of distortion, noise when changing languages and the associated idiosyncrasy. Or a kind of almost unconscious desire of some authors to indulge in localisms that are not only linguistic but characterize characters and settings. Or, why not consider it, it could be that Block is not so commercial, since he often approaches his crime novels as the most authentic noir of the early years, without lyrical or cinematographic concessions.
It is not easy to guess what is limping for this marked difference in success. Beyond the fact that Block more colors his enigmas with the criminal and police atmosphere than the King open to fantasy, black genre, terror (or whatever is third in his endless imaginary). The question remains as to whether it is also a question of the other side, of the reader, who for whatever reason does not finish taking the point from the triumphant Block on the other side of the Atlantic.
The thing is that when you get the hang of his characters, Block can convince you to his cause. And then you will always have work ahead of you in a very extensive bibliography, full of various sagas and many other loose works.
Top 3 Recommended Lawrence Block Novels
The sins of our fathers
Thanks to his character Matthew Scudder, Lawrence Block became known around the world. Despite the fact that he already had other independent series and novels of relative success in the USA. And this first case of Scudder serves us perfectly to familiarize ourselves with an unlicensed private detective, fresh from the police and with the ballast of his personal life made a few foxes.
Scudder shows us the world from his dumpy motel room in Hell's Kitchen, a mythical neighborhood in New York (I myself visited him for this and other works such as Sleepers). The synopsis reads: The girl was very young. She had become estranged from her family and lived in Greenwich Village until she was stabbed to death. Now her father wants to know what she had become and what secrets she was hiding from her to give some meaning to her death. Such delicate work can only be done by a detective who knows New York well and knows what pain is: Matt Scudder.
The Hitman
Another beginning of the mythical saga. And again it is time to at least get to know the first novel of a series to be able to then go quietly jumping with the security of knowing those ties that link everything with the start, the presentations and the update of the previous life of such emblematic protagonists capitals of the sagas.
Keller is a killer: professional, cool, confident, competent, and dependable. However, he is also a complex person: cautious and lonely, without mercy, efficient and distant, prone to loneliness and self-doubt, having nightmares and worrying about his professional career. His therapist thinks his job is to solve business problems, but Keller is a hit man. He lives the life of a well-paid lonely businessman who travels frequently; used to impersonal hotel rooms, traveling inhospitable stretches of freeways in rental cars, and eating in anonymous places.
And, although he is a New Yorker by birth, he fantasizes about the good life in the country and in each place he visits he dreams of starting a life, with a new home, away from the pressures and moral complications that his line of work implies.
Walking among graves
The tenth installment of the Matthew Scudder series, sixteen years after the first part "The Sins of Our Fathers." It's funny how in the case of Block you can always find a sequel to any of its sagas and relocate immediately. As if Block were in charge of depositing a bookmark in your subconscious to return to any of its protagonists. Undoubtedly that is the great virtue of this type of authors dedicated to novelizing criminal cases, they raise their props over the reader's imagination and there they remain, for when you return to the series.
New York. The Twin Towers still dominate the Manhattan sky. Policemen and camels are located through search engines. Crack is beginning to be seen on the streets, but heroin and angel dust are still the star drugs. Matt Scudder, a former cop and alcoholic, faces one of the bloodiest cases of his career. Some sex maniacs are dedicated to abducting, raping and brutally murdering women. Between meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, Scudder must use his instincts, his intelligence and his contacts to end this horror. With methods inside or outside the law.
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