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136th out of 428 books
—
53 voters
The Girl with the Long Green Heart (Hard Case Crime #14)
by
Lawrence Block (Goodreads Author)
Johnny Hayden and Doug Rance had a scheme to take real estate entrepreneur Wallace Gunderman for all he was worth. But they needed a girl on the inside to make it work.
Enter Evelyn Stone: Gunderman's secretary, his lover - and his worst enemy. Gunderman promised to marry her, but never came through. Now she's ready to make him pay...
Enter Evelyn Stone: Gunderman's secretary, his lover - and his worst enemy. Gunderman promised to marry her, but never came through. Now she's ready to make him pay...
Mass Market Paperback, Hard Case Crime 14, 251 pages
Published
November 3rd 2005
by Hard Crime Case
(first published 1965)
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Lawrence Block writes several series featuring a reoccurring hero. I have read the series with Matthew Scudder, a private eye; Bernie Rhodenbarr, a thief; and
John Paul Keller, a hit man. Block has won numerous literary awards, and I have enjoyed all his books except the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, which is highly formulaic. The Girl With the Long Green Heart is a stand-alone novel. This book tells a caper story in which two con artists plot a phoney real estate deal. Block wrote this book back in...more
John Paul Keller, a hit man. Block has won numerous literary awards, and I have enjoyed all his books except the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, which is highly formulaic. The Girl With the Long Green Heart is a stand-alone novel. This book tells a caper story in which two con artists plot a phoney real estate deal. Block wrote this book back in...more
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'The Girl with the Long Green Heart' is an unusual member in the Hard Case Crime Series: the plot doesn't start as a hard felony but a white-collar crime, involving a lot of fraud and deception. This emphasis doesn't make it a bad book, but slows down the narrative flow in the first two thirds of the novel. First, the tricksters explain the deceit to themselves and then, they try to fool the victim. That's not boring, but the pace of the narration is somehow sedate. Only the last third turns out...more
Well, I always like Block. This was an audio book by a good reader, very dated with the main character smoking a lot, able to take a gun aboard an plane, travel on Mohawk Airlines under another name, having to handle business via phone -- not cell -- and getting a decent hotel room (with room service!) for $20 a night.
And pay toilets -- you never see those these days.
The usual good dialogue and moving steadily forward with the dialog -- this one about a big swindle complete with double dealings...more
And pay toilets -- you never see those these days.
The usual good dialogue and moving steadily forward with the dialog -- this one about a big swindle complete with double dealings...more
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This is one of the Hard Case Series. A friend clued me into the fact that this was a series way back when I read [I:]"The Colorado Kid" [/I:]by Stephen King, which I really enjoyed. Each is a tale (longer than a short story, shorter than a novel (about 6 hrs in audiobook format)) written by a different author. I figured I'd give the rest of the series a try. At first I thought "The Girl..." was very transparent, but the author had more in mind. Although slow at times overall the bit of a twist o...more
The second Lawrence Block story I've read in the Hard Case Crime series. Although mostly (but not completely) predictable, this is a really fun story of a long con set up by a pair of grifters and their novice female accomplice. The characters are all believable, the pacing is taut, and the crossing and double-crossing that stories like this often have will not leave you disappointed.
I would have to say that this story is all about hammers. All kind of hammers. Through out the read you are waiting for them to drop, for you KNOW they MUST be there. But for you to see which hammer drops first on which gun, you must read the book.
Of course an equal argument is that the book is about the other shoe. I'll leave it up to you to decide..
Of course an equal argument is that the book is about the other shoe. I'll leave it up to you to decide..
You cannot talk about this book very long without giving away the secret. It's good for moody atmosphere and terse language. I mostly saw the end coming, and I'm not particularly clever, but there was still a surprise there also. I wanted to like the protagonist, but mostly I felt sorry for him that he is such a sap.
L truly enjoyed the characters especially Johnny. He and his friend, Doug are going to commit a "con". It is workingg so well, until it is not! Johnny thinks he is doing this last job for a new life as a restaurant owner and hopes that Evelyn will join in his dream. But that is not to be,
Good example of anoir novel. It is in many respects predictable (do I even need to tell you that the titular girl ends up being a femme fatale?), but it follows th eformula competently and engagingly as it meticulously tracks the build of the con and then how everything inevitably goes wrong. Of more interest is the ending, which does not follow the revenge after betrayal formula. Interesting. Not a classic, certainly, but an entertaining enough read.
This was such an incredibly boring book. Half the book is filled with two grifters filing papers and making useless phone calls. The rest of the book is half-hearted attempts at action that don't amount to much of anything. It gets a 2 out of 5.
I love Lawrence Block. The characters are always interesting, three-dimensional. I feel like I've actually met them in real life. The stories aren't going to win any awards for originality, but that's part of the appeal. They're comfortable, like a small town you grew up in or know well.
I love that Hard Case is republishing some of these great mystery novels from the '60s. They remind me of some of the stuff that Playboy Publishing used to put out that was sexy, but more funny and with a great plot.
A fast, well written, enjoyable read about a con artist's elaborate scheme. The plot is fairly predictible but the setting and tone is reminiscent of an old black and white classic movie before email and iphones and google.
This one and "Grifter's Game" are my favorite Block books so far. This one was a lot like "The Sting" or "Matchstick Men" about a long con and cons within cons and so forth. It's fun if you like that sort of thing, which I do.
In some ways a color-by-numbers noir, but a really well-done one--and one that makes me wish Block had done more of these back in the day. Kudos to Hard Case for bringing this one back for us.
Dec 30, 2008
Masha
added it
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Too much set-up, not enough pay-off. Not as tautly plotted as the superior Lucky at Cards, either. Still, Lawrence Block does serviceable work with the predictable double-cross formula. (And the title is a killer!)
I like Block's writing.
This book is interesting for education it offers on the long con.
Waited a while for the double-cross that I knew was inevitable. Satisfactory ending.
This book is interesting for education it offers on the long con.
Waited a while for the double-cross that I knew was inevitable. Satisfactory ending.
Fun Sixties noir set mainly in Olean, of all places. One scene took place in the restaurant I went on a Big Date for my eighteenth birthday back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
A great book for those who love a long con. It follows the traditional hard boiled Noir threads, but knows it, and comes out the other side better for it.
I loved it. Block is (or at least was in the 60s, I haven't read any of his recent work) such a really good writer for this sort of pulpy pulp. This one felt like a lighter Jim Thompson.
Paperback original from the 1960s re-issued by Hard Case Crime. Spoiler alert - the con doesn't come off as planned.
so i saw Kalki koechlin reading this in DevD, a fav film. And so i read it. TOP NOTCH NOIR !!!
AKA: Sheldon Lord, Jill Emerson, Paul Kavanaugh, Chip Harrison, Lawrence Block
Liked this book and would recommend. It's a very "twisted" tale in more ways than one that had me guessing pretty much right up to the end..which I like. It's all based on a real estate scam and a ex-con grifter who gets re-involved in the "perfect", along with the secretary of the target. It was written in 1965 so you have to remember that all the technology we have today was not available then. That reminds me of how much work all of it would have been as well. Since I graduated high school in...more
Classic Block ... although it was written in the 1960s, I loved it.
The plot was thin. Anyone who falls for that caper is an idiot.
a old fashioned con and a good read
love Block's language, dialogue and descriptions
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Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2002.
From his web site:
I'm told every good author website needs a bio, so here's mine:
"Lawrence Block's novels range from the urban noir of Matthew Scudder (A Drop of the Hard Stuff) to the urbane effervescence of Bernie Rhodenbarr (The Burglar on the Prowl), while other characters include the globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanne...more
More about Lawrence Block...
From his web site:
I'm told every good author website needs a bio, so here's mine:
"Lawrence Block's novels range from the urban noir of Matthew Scudder (A Drop of the Hard Stuff) to the urbane effervescence of Bernie Rhodenbarr (The Burglar on the Prowl), while other characters include the globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanne...more
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