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    Small Town
    Small Town
    Small Town
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Small Town

    Written by Lawrence Block

    Narrated by Lawrence Block

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The author of dozens of acclaimed novels including those in the Scudder and Keller series, Lawrence Block has long been recognized as one of the premier crime writers of our time. Now, the breathtaking skill, power, and versatility of this Grand Master are brilliantly displayed once again in a mesmerizing new thriller set on the streets of the city he knows and loves so well.

    That was the thing about New York -- if you loved it, if it worked for you, it ruined you for anyplace else in the world.

    In this dazzlingly constructed novel, Lawrence Block reveals the secret at the heart of the Big Apple. His glorious metropolis is really a small town, filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations, fears, disappointments, and triumphs are interconnected by bonds as unbreakable as they are unseen. Pulsating with the lives of its denizens -- bartenders and hookers, power brokers and politicos, cops and secretaries, editors and dreamers -- the city inspires a passion that is universal yet unique in each of its eight million inhabitants, including:

    John Blair Creighton, a writer on the verge of a breakthrough;

    Francis Buckram, a charismatic ex–police commissioner -- and the inside choice for the next mayor -- on the verge of a breakdown;

    Susan Pomerance, a beautiful, sophisticated folk-art dealer plumbing the depths of her own fierce sexuality;

    Maury Winters, a defense attorney who prefers murder trials because there's one less witness;

    Jerry Pankow, an ex-addict who has turned being clean into a living, mopping up after New York's nightlife;

    And, in the shadows of a city reeling from tragedy, an unlikely killing machine who wages a one-man war against them all.

    Infused with the raw cadence, stark beauty, and relentless pace of New York City, Small Town is a tour de force Block fans old and new will celebrate.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 3, 2004
    ISBN9780060783167
    Author

    Lawrence Block

    LAWRENCE BLOCK has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published more than 100 books, and no end of short stories. LB is best known for his series characters, including Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Evan Tanner, and Keller. LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke. His monthly instructional column ran in WRITER'S DIGEST for 14 years and led to a series of books for writers. He has also written television and film screenplays. Several of LB's books have been filmed, including A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES. LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards, Japanese Maltese Falcon award, Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association, been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has been awarded the Société 813 trophy.

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    Reviews for Small Town

    3.5/5

    8 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the first Lawrence Block I have ever read. It is not one of his many series but a stand alone book about New York City and a string of murders that seem to be tied together in a variety of different ways. The plot is kind of unnecessarily coying but the characters are totally worth wading through it.
    • 5/5
      i loved it.. Lawrence block is total entertainment. great book
    • 3/5
      In the days following 9/11 a diverse group of New Yorkers with no apparent connection to a killer finds their lives interconnecting around his victims.
    • 5/5
      My first fiction by Block - I had read his 'how to' on writing the novel. Great characterisation, great story, with evocative descriptions of New York and it's people in the aftermath of 9/11. Check out the sex life of Susan the art dealer - can you really, physically do those things? I must get out more...
    • 4/5
      John Blair Creighton, writer, takes a woman home and the next day she is found strangled. He is accused of murder, and while waiting for trial, writes his next book. Susan Pomerance, an art dealer, explores fierce and kinky sexuality. Other strange and powerful characters - perhaps too much or too graphic sex. I think the sex reflects the (natural?) desperate response of people to an event like 9/11 (Are there any other events like 9/11?) as all the characters, in relative degrees of sanity, try to cope.
    • 3/5
      In an after 9/11 New York the lives of several characters intertwine around a murderer on the streets. A former police comissioner, art gallery owner, author, bartender, private eye, piercer, lawyer, agent, and many others all live their lives in this supprisingly "Small Town"I have read a couple other Lawrence Block books and enjoy his writing style but this one just didn't do it for me. The characters were there, the suspense was there, but it just did't seem to come together in that great kinda way. Still a good read but not the best I have ever read.
    • 2/5
      (#3 in the 2004 Book Challenge)This was very different from any of the other Block books I've read (mostly, the Bernie the Burglar series which are the kind of books that have a lot of puns, and Hit Man which I think is one of the greatest books ever and everyone should run not walk to find this book and read it and worship it like I do). Anyway, this book, Small Town is set in NYC in the year after 9-11, and that setting is a device that moves the story forward. I thought this was very interesting and admirable, because that was a really strange year (to say the least) but it was a crazy normalized strange because when everyone's having a strange year, it's easy to lose touch with what normal is. I don't think I absorbed how odd it was until I looked back on it. I thought it was admirable because it strikes me as a bit of a risky choice to focus on -- if it doesn't come off, an author could get a lot of backlash on that.Also, this book has A LOT of sex. Raunchy sex. Which is okay, I just wasn't expecting it. I'm still trying to figure out if there was a point to it or not (in terms of serving a purpose in the novel). It did have that annoying aspect of feeling rather forced edgy, I don't like that. I'll decide if I think it's edgy, thankyewverramuch.Grade: a solid B. You know, the more I think about it, the more the sex annoyed me. I still give him credit for writing ultra-believable NYC stories.