Grifter's Game

We forgot her husband. She did, anyway. I didn't, because he was an important part of the picture. The fat, ugly, old husband, who was also rich. The pretty wife, who wanted more than the old husband was giving her. It was almost standard. (p 25)

These are the ingredients that make up Lawrence Block's excellent noir thriller Grifter's Game. A book that does sound like it is going to be a pretty bog-standard crime novel. The synopsis didn't give me high hopes, yet the book succeeds thanks to Mr. Block's writing and his ability to make you care about the fate of some loathsome characters.

A con man who steals fancy luggage to use as a prop to scam hotels swipes the wrong suitcase. He winds up with a large quantity of heroin and a femme show more fatale who loves her husband's fortune, but is ambivalent about the man. Plans are made and you know it will all wind up bad, but the fun in this one is watching it go to pot.

Mr. Block managed to write a book without a single likable character that still kept me glued to the pages. The book is a near-perfect example of crime writing. It's hard to believe that this is his third published novel (well, at least the third novel he was willing to accept credit for). The pacing is perfect. All the characters except the first person narrator are two dimensional, but believable anyway and the writing is cynical, dark and lovely.

Our 'hero', Joe Marlin is a completely amoral sociopath. He is never concerned about the harm his actions cause others. He never considers whether his actions are moral. Only about whether it will complicate his life or not.

You will never warm up to Joe (you may even hate him), but you will not be able to give up on finding out if he succeeds in ridding Mona of her unneeded husband. The book rockets along, always managing to stay one step ahead of you with its twists.

The only reason I didn't rate this one a perfect five stars is that the ending is incredibly repulsive, even by the standards of our amoral narrator. To be fair, the ending is in keeping with the black tone of the rest of the book. A softened ending would have felt like a cop-out. Nonetheless, it is incredibly nasty.

I also questioned how such a hardened character could fall for a woman, any woman, so quickly and completely. Though without that angle there wouldn't have been much of a story.

These two minor quibbles do nothing to keep Grifter's Game from being the best crime novel I have yet read. show less

Joe Marlin goes by many fake names and pulls just about any grift, from theft to skipping out on hotel bills to conning wealthy women and gigolo work. Escaping his latest con in Philly, he heads to Atlantic City to see what he can get away with there. First thing, he steals expensive luggage in the hopes that it has cash, or at least some clothes in his size, but is startled to find an enormous amount of heroin inside. Joe doesn't have a drug connection anymore but it's too valuable to throw away, so he begins hatching a plan for how it can make him money. In the meantime, he's also surprised to find that he's fallen in love with a blonde he meets on the beach, one who is unhappily married to a very rich older man.
As much pulp as a show more glass of orange juice. Joe is a scoundrel who you almost root for as he turns each action around to look at it from every angle. This was Block's first published novel, originally titled "Mona". show less

If this is any indication of what I have ahead of me with Hard Case Crime, I'm a happy man. Not only is this novel so tightly edited, it's a no-nonsense, straight up page-turner.

When I was hit with the first plot twist, my mouth dropped open. Maybe some people might be able to spot it early on (if you read the plot description, I believe it's in there) but it came to me out of seemingly nowhere. As the novel progresses, you begin to really sympathise with Joe and start to like the guy; rooting for he and Mona to prevail.

Which is probably why the ending had such a strong impact on me. You could have asked me in the beginning to try and predict where this was going to end up and I could say with absolute certainty, there's no way I show more could've seen this one coming. The ending not only shocked me, it felt like a punch in the stomach. I shouldn't use the word "satisfying" given the events in question but coming across something that dark was pretty refreshing.

Lawrence Block is clearly a versatile writer. He can write longer fiction within a series (his signature Matt Scudder character) as well as short, cut-to-the-chase fiction with this one-off Grifter's Game novel. I'm pleased to see he has more than a few entries with this publisher and can't wait to devour more. show less

Grifter's Game was originally published as "Mona" in 1961. It was one of the earlier books Block published under his own name rather than a pen name. It is one of a number of books he wrote in the early sixties about grifters and con men along with Girl With the Long Green Heart.

Here, the narrator (Joe Marlin) stays in fancy hotels without any intention of paying the bill. And, "there was a girl in it. Her name was Londa Jamison and she smelled like money." The narrator explains that he liked money. He thought she was Mainline all the way, meaning from the wealthy side of Philly. She thought he was wealthy. Two gold diggers playing for each other!

Having to leave town in a hurry andwithout luggage, the narrator heads to Atlantic City, show more hoping to find some wealthy broad to hustle. He appropriates two top grade suitcases with the initials LKB when
leaving the railway station because hotels frown on guests without luggage.

On the beach, a gorgeous blonde who looked like she'd been poured into her bathing suit, made our narrator's acquaintance. She confesses that her husband is old boring and rich. Why do pretty girls marry rich old men, she explains. Our plucky narrator returns to his hotel room and decides to have a
gander at what's in the suitcase: sixty cubic inches of raw uncut
heroin. Later, after a steamy encounter on the beach, Mona let's drop that her
husband's name is L Keith Bassard. As in, LKB, the initials on the suitcases.

Of course, we are now into Postman Always Rings Twice territory as they both need the money and need each other. As Mona explained, once you get used to having money, you can't do without.
But don't assume that this plot device is just a carbon copy of another book or that there's not more to the story. Remember, this book is called Grifter's Game and Joe may not be the only con artist in the
story. And, maybe she had her pigeon in her sights right from the beginning.

This, according to Block's afterword, was the first book he put his own
name on and I can see why. This is an excellent book and I challenge
you to have the willpower to put it down without finishing it. show less

Being a Noir/Hard Boiled crime thriller fan, I just got into Hard Case Crime books earlier this year with Lawrence Block's "Sinner Man". Thoroughly enjoyed it, so I decided to start with Hard Case Crime #001 "Grifter's Game (also a Block novel). Loved it! After two books, I have become a Lawrence Block fan. I really like that his novels are short and to the point, no extra filler that doesn't need to be there.

I thought I had an idea where the story was going to end, then it took an unexpected twist that I did not see coming at all! Good Stuff!!

Let me start by saying I love Lawrence Block's books. I find his Bernie Rhodenbarr novels some of the funniest mysteries out there; his Keller stories so wildly improbable that I can't help but love them; Matthew Scudder's struggles with alcoholism realistic and vivid; and so on through each of his series. That said, I wasn't as wild about this offering.

The problem is that there's simply no way for me to like the main character, not even a little bit, and that's not something I expect from this author. I kept trying to root for him, but I got to page 205 and it hadn't happened.

And yet, I kept reading. The writing is tough and fast-paced, exactly the pulp style that Hard Case Crime wants to revive. The resolution of the drama was show more somewhat surprising and the final paragraphs of the book very much so. It left me feeling bleak and grim, exactly Block's intention, I'm sure.

So, I'm forced to say it was better written but less fun than the first HCC book I tried (Westlake's Somebody Owes Me Money).

I'd recommend it but, if you're an existing Block fan, leave your expectations behind. show less

Pretty good read! A con man, Joe Marlin, steals someone else's luggage, and when he opens it up - surprise! And then, Mona! Lots of cons going on, and it's written in a quick paced, noir style. I didn't "buy" how quickly and completely Joe fell for Mona, but the rest was fun! And there's a pretty dark, strange twist at the end! And one heck of a lesson - "The bird in your cage is not the same bird as the wild thing you caught in the forest. There is a difference." Boy, is there!