Even before he invented Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr, Block was writing terrific thrillers such as this.

Johnny Hayden and his partner had the perfect scam selling worthless Canadian land to marks. The scam just has to work, because at stake is Evvie — the girl with the long green heart.

Lawrence Block's novels win awards, grace bestseller lists, and get made into films. His short fiction is every bit as outstanding, and this complete collection of his short stories establishes the extraordinary skill, power, and versatility of this contemporary Grand Master.

Block's beloved series characters are on hand, including ex-cop Matt Scudder, bookselling burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, and the disarming duo of Chip Harrison and Leo Haig. Here, too, are Keller, the wistful hit man, and the natty attorney Martin Ehrengraf, who takes criminal cases on a contingency basis and whose clients always turn out to be innocent.

Keeping them company are dozens of other refugees from Block's dazzling imagination — all caught up in more ingenious plots than you can shake a blunt instrument at.

Half a dozen of Block's stories have been shortlisted for the Edgar Award, and three have won it outright. Other stories have been read aloud on BBC Radio, dramatized on American and British television, and adapted for the stage and screen. All the tales in Block's three previous collections are here, along with two dozen new stories. Some will keep you on the edge of the chair. Others will make you roll on the floor laughing. And more than a few of them will give you something to think about. is an essential volume for Lawrence Block fans, and a dazzling introduction for others to the wonderful world of... Block magic!

“A Chance to Get Even” is a story about a poker game. A friendly game-or at least that's how it starts out. I played in a friendly game for years, and still take a hand now and then, but the evenings I spent at the card table never turned out like this.

And that's probably just as well.

This is the third story about Martin H. Ehrengraf, the diminutive defense attorney who rarely sees the inside of a courtroom. In the preceding story, , he spells out his core principle thus:

In his first two appearances, Ehrengraf would certainly appear to have been saddled with clients who in fact committed the crimes of which they stood accused. But in Grantham Beale, the little lawyer is cursed with a genuinely innocent client, innocent not only of the murder for which he has been convicted but hopelessly innocent in the ways of the world.

It’s a challenge for Ehrengraf, and one to which he rises with zeal and dispatch.

Martin Ehrengraf, the criminal defense attorney who takes cases on a contingency basis, made his debut in 1978; by 2003 he’d successfully demonstrated the innocence of ten clients. Now he’s back for the first time in almost a decade, in The Ehrengraf Settlement.

A pillar of the community, a rich man with a trophy wife, exceeds his authority as a leader of the local Vigilance Commission and shoots a man down on a neighbor’s lawn. Ehrengraf, convinced of his client’s innocence, works his subtle magic, and charges are dropped. But the client makes a fatal mistake: he pays Ehrengraf only a tenth of the agreed-upon fee.

And Ehrengraf realizes that he himself has made a tragic mistake. The client he presumed innocent must have been guilty all along...

When I finished writing in 1976, I knew I had found a character I’d like to revisit. But it was Frederic Dannay’s immediate enthusiasm for Ehrengraf that made me write one story after another about the diminutive attorney. Fred, of course, was one of the pair of cousins who wrote the Ellery Queen mysteries, and it was Fred who edited , and he snapped up the stories as quickly as I wrote them.

Ehrengraf’s debut grew out of a plot device; in the course of my writing the story, Martin Ehrengraf came into being. In his second appearance, we see him more fully realized, tailoring his approach to the case to suit circumstances, and altering them to his purposes.

Words to live by...

Martin Ehrengraf, the criminal defense attorney who takes cases on a contingency basis, made his debut in 1978; by 2003 he’d successfully demonstrated the innocence of ten clients. Now he’s back for the first time in almost a decade, in The Ehrengraf Settlement.

A pillar of the community, a rich man with a trophy wife, exceeds his authority as a leader of the local Vigilance Commission and shoots a man down on a neighbor’s lawn. Ehrengraf, convinced of his client’s innocence, works his subtle magic, and charges are dropped. But the client makes a fatal mistake: he pays Ehrengraf only a tenth of the agreed-upon fee.

And Ehrengraf realizes that he himself has made a tragic mistake. The client he presumed innocent must have been guilty all along...

This is the fourth story about Martin H. Ehrengraf, the dapper little lawyer whose clients always turn out to be innocent. Unlike Perry Mason, Ehrengraf rarely sees the inside of a courtroom, but like that fellow, he never loses a case.

Ehrengraf charges high fees, and has the good sense to represent individuals able to pay them. But in the present story he accepts a court appointment to defend a hapless indigent who has evidently beaten his wife to death in a drunken argument.

A fellow attorney assumes Ehrengraf will have his client plead guilty to manslaughter, accept his $175 fee, and go on to other matters. But how could Ehrengraf allow an innocent man to plead guilty? And why should he be content with $175, when there are other ways to make a case profitable?

The Ehrengraf Reverse is the last of ten stories about the dapper little defense attorney who rarely sees the inside of a courtroom because he never is encumbered with a guilty client. It was requested by Otto Penzler for an anthology of football stories; for all the weekend afternoons I spend in front of the TV, this would seem to be the only story of mine with a gridiron setting.

The difficulty, with Ehrengraf, is finding appropriate variations on the theme. I’m pleased with the one that shaped up for this story, and hope you enjoy it.

For years, readers have turned to Lawrence Block’s novels for mesmerizing entertainment. And for years. writers have turned to Block’s for candid, conversational, practical advice on how to put a publishable novel on paper.

Now that you’ve discovered it, you, too, will find this to be the guide for the working novelist. Filled with Block’s experiences and much that he’s learned from others, the look helps you:

• identify the type of novel you’re to write

• invite plot ideas to bubble up from your subconscious

• develop characters who act, feel and speak like real people

• use what you know and learn what you must

• snare readers from the start

• keep writing

• develop your style

• market your work in a professional manner

Bead what Lawrence Block has to say. Then write what you have to write. Your novel.

This, the fifth story about Martin H. Ehrengraf, presents the criminous criminal lawyer with a different sort of problem. He’s engaged to defend a man who anticipates being charged with homicide. But no one has been murdered.

Yet.

In the beleaguered but resourceful Ethan Crowe, Ehrengraf has a client who sees the wisdom of hedging his bets before he places them. In Terence Reginald Mayhew, the little lawyer has an adversary with the terrifying power of madness housed in the body of a housebound cripple.

Ehrengraf, a great fan of poetry, has cited William Blake and Winthrop Mackworth Praed in earlier stories; in he finds the opportunity to quote two of his favorites, Christopher Smart and Thomas Hood.

This time it started with a call girl.

A hood who owned

Eddie called the colonel and the colonel called the others...

There were six of them. Specialists. Ex-soldiers, each with a unique talent. There game was getting to a special kind of vermin, the kind that preyed on innocents... the kind the law never seemed to be able to grab.

There was always trouble, but this one was going to be really rough. The "banker" was no ordinary hood.