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Chip Harrison #3
Make Out With Murder
Follows New York City sleuth-for-hire Chip Harrison as he confronts his first case, in which five beautiful sisters--one of them an old flame--are hunted down by their wicked relatives
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
20 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
767 books2,983 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the 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 (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the 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 (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
June 26, 2024
Make Out With Murder (1974) (Gold Medal # 3029) is the third of four Chip Harrison novels, originally credited to the writing of the lead character Chip Harrison, but Lawrence Block always. The other three include No Score (1970), Chip Harrison Scores Again (1971), and The Topless Tulip Caper (1975). While the first two books in the series are baudy comedic pieces about a young man who sets out on the road and meets lusty women, Make Out With Murder takes the lead character (Chip) and sets him into a well-wrought murder mystery with nods throughout the book to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, Richard Prather’s tropical fish, Richard Stark, and others. In writing this, Block is very aware of the private eye and crime fiction traditions and honors it with these asides.
Chip is now an assistant to a private eye, a former tropical fish collector who comes into some money and decides to follow his dreams to become the next Nero Wolfe. As the story opens, Chip is practicing his shadowing techniques on the unsuspecting because business is slow. Chip is also having a relationship with one Melanie Trelawney, until he one day comes to her apartment, kicking the door in when he got no answer and a bad feeling, only to find her nude corpse punctured with heroin needles. She had been telling him that she was suspicious of two of her sisters dying recently, one falling out a window and the other in a car crash. There are five sisters in total, three now gone, and Chip with the consent of his advisor takes on the case of the Trelawney sisters and the mystery of who is killing them. Although the narration is humorous at times, this novel is a different species than the first two in the series and is actually quite a decent read.
Chip is now an assistant to a private eye, a former tropical fish collector who comes into some money and decides to follow his dreams to become the next Nero Wolfe. As the story opens, Chip is practicing his shadowing techniques on the unsuspecting because business is slow. Chip is also having a relationship with one Melanie Trelawney, until he one day comes to her apartment, kicking the door in when he got no answer and a bad feeling, only to find her nude corpse punctured with heroin needles. She had been telling him that she was suspicious of two of her sisters dying recently, one falling out a window and the other in a car crash. There are five sisters in total, three now gone, and Chip with the consent of his advisor takes on the case of the Trelawney sisters and the mystery of who is killing them. Although the narration is humorous at times, this novel is a different species than the first two in the series and is actually quite a decent read.
January 11, 2013
Lawrence Block's homage (of sorts) to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe. It doesn't so much imitate as try to update (circa 1974) the basic story concept. It comes across as something of a low rent, almost seedy Nero Wolfe knock-off with a lot of sex going on. At times it seems more satire than homage while at other times it just seems odd. If I were the kind of person who gave up easily I would have cast this book aside in the first 30 pages, it just wasn't appealing to me... frankly, if it weren't written by Lawrence Block I probably would never have been motivated to finish it.
The Nero Wolfe surrogate Leo Haig is a comic character, bumbling and inept in many ways (board games, pipe smoking and propping his feet on his desk) but apparently sharp in the ways of deductive reasoning. The Archie Goodwin stand-in is Chip Harrison a young man with very active hormones who seems intent on "scoring" every chance he can, he's much less witty and charming than Stout's Goodwin (surprising since author Block can and does write very humorous and clever dialogue in his other series) and seems to be more of a clueless bystander than anything else. Had the Harrison character been more likable or even less one dimensional the book could have been much more interesting.
The mystery is okay, it's not the kind where the reader is given all the clues needed to solve it, it sticks to the Wolfe formula of having all the suspects gathered in one room for the final solution to the case. It's average at best. I doubt I'll try any of the other books in this series.
The Nero Wolfe surrogate Leo Haig is a comic character, bumbling and inept in many ways (board games, pipe smoking and propping his feet on his desk) but apparently sharp in the ways of deductive reasoning. The Archie Goodwin stand-in is Chip Harrison a young man with very active hormones who seems intent on "scoring" every chance he can, he's much less witty and charming than Stout's Goodwin (surprising since author Block can and does write very humorous and clever dialogue in his other series) and seems to be more of a clueless bystander than anything else. Had the Harrison character been more likable or even less one dimensional the book could have been much more interesting.
The mystery is okay, it's not the kind where the reader is given all the clues needed to solve it, it sticks to the Wolfe formula of having all the suspects gathered in one room for the final solution to the case. It's average at best. I doubt I'll try any of the other books in this series.
August 2, 2020
A thoroughly enjoyable lightly ribald Nero Wolfe pastiche. Recommended
March 3, 2019
First published in 1974, Five Little Rich Girls was published in the US as Make Out With Murder. It’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek PI tale, with a fair splattering of in-gags for fans of crime fiction, with the central character’s boss being a mystery novel aficionado seeking to ape the success and notoriety of Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe amongst others. The tale is written in the first person from the perspective of Chip Harrison, a high school drop-out and street smart young man, who investigates the suspicious death of his girlfriend and two of her sisters. Whilst the story starts out as a parody it progressively takes the investigation more seriously, turning into a genuine whodunnit. It never quite loses its light hearted, sometimes improbable nature, and at times is quite racy. Overall, an okay read that got better as it progressed.
August 22, 2023
Spoilers ahead.
The first two Chip Harrison books were pretty much softcore porn and detailed his life experiences after he got kicked out of private high school because his (swindler) parents had passed and left him no money. He first made his way to Chicago and then gradually to S. Carolina where he became deputy sheriff of a small town and lived in a brothel where he was also a part-time bouncer. He left and made his way to New York city where he has become an assistant to a part-time detective and aquarist Leo Haig.
In this book, his friend Melanie T. is found dead. The homicide detectives think it's an overdose but Chip doesn't think so since she's not a user, other things also seem suspicious. Even more so, before she died, she had told him that two of her other sisters had also died, one by suicide, throwing herself out of a window and the other in an auto accident.
There are two sisters left alive and it is also feared that they will be targets. The motive is that their father was a rich man and some unknown person might inherit all the money if the sisters died. Of the remaining two sisters, Caitlin is married to a rich man and Kim is a struggling actress with a rough boyfriend who works at the docks.
Their father's attorney and Caitlin both hire Leo Craig to look into the sisters' deaths. Once the setup is done, Chip investigates and talks to people close the sisters and people who might have a motive. The author does a pretty good job of the investigation peppered with lots of sex in between.
At the end of the book, Leo Haig, invites all the suspects and friends to his office and reveals the results of the investigation and the culprit.
It's hard to write humor, Block does a fair job. He also does a fair job with the sex part. There is not a lot of suspense and that's not Block's forte. He usually reveals the culprit by 1 or 2 hints or mistakes that the culprit leaves behind.
Overall I would rate this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
The first two Chip Harrison books were pretty much softcore porn and detailed his life experiences after he got kicked out of private high school because his (swindler) parents had passed and left him no money. He first made his way to Chicago and then gradually to S. Carolina where he became deputy sheriff of a small town and lived in a brothel where he was also a part-time bouncer. He left and made his way to New York city where he has become an assistant to a part-time detective and aquarist Leo Haig.
In this book, his friend Melanie T. is found dead. The homicide detectives think it's an overdose but Chip doesn't think so since she's not a user, other things also seem suspicious. Even more so, before she died, she had told him that two of her other sisters had also died, one by suicide, throwing herself out of a window and the other in an auto accident.
There are two sisters left alive and it is also feared that they will be targets. The motive is that their father was a rich man and some unknown person might inherit all the money if the sisters died. Of the remaining two sisters, Caitlin is married to a rich man and Kim is a struggling actress with a rough boyfriend who works at the docks.
Their father's attorney and Caitlin both hire Leo Craig to look into the sisters' deaths. Once the setup is done, Chip investigates and talks to people close the sisters and people who might have a motive. The author does a pretty good job of the investigation peppered with lots of sex in between.
At the end of the book, Leo Haig, invites all the suspects and friends to his office and reveals the results of the investigation and the culprit.
It's hard to write humor, Block does a fair job. He also does a fair job with the sex part. There is not a lot of suspense and that's not Block's forte. He usually reveals the culprit by 1 or 2 hints or mistakes that the culprit leaves behind.
Overall I would rate this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
November 25, 2018
Barely worth the effort, more like 1.51 stars.
A sloppy little book that tries to be both a send up of the serial murder mystery (the tec in this one both believes that Nero Wolf is real, and is consciously trying to model himself on him) while also being a lighthearted sex comedy, which has the unfortunate side effect of the narrator joking about sex or having sex in the presence of violent death and sex being the only way that women are involved in the action of the novel despite the plot centering around five sisters. This squicky meat market attitude pervades the novel but reaches a repellent acme in the conclusion when the murderer is revealed. Entirely a product of its time, if you can forgive the cartoonish sexual mores of the early 1970s, then maybe pick this up. I admit to having a perverse love of how over the top everything was. However, if you are too young to remember or have forgotten how gross the 1970s were, don't pick this up. It's a mainline hit of that era's junk culture.
A sloppy little book that tries to be both a send up of the serial murder mystery (the tec in this one both believes that Nero Wolf is real, and is consciously trying to model himself on him) while also being a lighthearted sex comedy, which has the unfortunate side effect of the narrator joking about sex or having sex in the presence of violent death and sex being the only way that women are involved in the action of the novel despite the plot centering around five sisters. This squicky meat market attitude pervades the novel but reaches a repellent acme in the conclusion when the murderer is revealed. Entirely a product of its time, if you can forgive the cartoonish sexual mores of the early 1970s, then maybe pick this up. I admit to having a perverse love of how over the top everything was. However, if you are too young to remember or have forgotten how gross the 1970s were, don't pick this up. It's a mainline hit of that era's junk culture.
August 18, 2019
I got this with the first "Harrison" novel, and tho the first was soft porn, this is a genuine mystery. Published 4 years after the first, using the old template of the armchair genius assembling suspects in a room for the grand solution, Block admits his man copies from Nero Wolfe. And it's not bad. Chip Harrison, the leg man (in both respects) for his Neroesque boss, again has "woman trouble." Still around 17 the ladies go for him. That's a dubious distraction to what might have been a better book.
in brief, as a B-list copy of established mystery novels it rates a satisfactory 3 stars.
in brief, as a B-list copy of established mystery novels it rates a satisfactory 3 stars.
April 20, 2020
A Wonderful Tribute to Nero Wolfe
This is the third book in the Chip Harrison series, and certainly displays the unique characterizations that Lawrence Block is justly famous for. I have read some of his books, but not with kind of fervor I approach other masters of the mystery genre. I heard about this series having a Nero Wolfe styled character (who may have a delusional belief that Wolfe and Archie Goodwin really exist). Block weaves a story that absolutely pays tribute to Rex Stout’s style, without ever becoming merely parody.
He also give a nice shot out to Ross MacDonald, one my favorite writer of detective stories.
This is the third book in the Chip Harrison series, and certainly displays the unique characterizations that Lawrence Block is justly famous for. I have read some of his books, but not with kind of fervor I approach other masters of the mystery genre. I heard about this series having a Nero Wolfe styled character (who may have a delusional belief that Wolfe and Archie Goodwin really exist). Block weaves a story that absolutely pays tribute to Rex Stout’s style, without ever becoming merely parody.
He also give a nice shot out to Ross MacDonald, one my favorite writer of detective stories.
January 12, 2022
Short and without long lulls between action of various kinds, much of this would perhaps puzzle anyone not already a fan of Rex Stout's detectives Nero Wolfe and there is almost non-stop homage and references to the same. Far (to use old terminology) bluer than a Stout book. It was in the end a lot of fun and well written.
My favorite quote "He's as single minded as Cato on the subject of Carthage", let that be a warning of the level of culture mixed in with murders and sex.
My favorite quote "He's as single minded as Cato on the subject of Carthage", let that be a warning of the level of culture mixed in with murders and sex.
September 30, 2018
Third Chip Harrison novel is perhaps the best. We meet the interesting Leo Haig here, Chip's boss, who lets him do all the legwork. The first two books were comedic soft porn (and enjoyable!), but this one brings crime into the game and makes it all the more enjoyable. It has all the attributes of the first two novels, particularly the humour, plus a good detective story. Well worth a read!
December 11, 2019
Make Out With Murder finds our hero, Chip Harrison, back in New York City working for a detective named Leo Haig. Chip thinks that, for all his great intellect, Haig believes that Nero Wolfe, upon whom he models himself, was a real person. Haig has hired young Chip to be his Archie Goodwin—amanuensis and leg man.
December 12, 2023
A short read, only 171 pages, of which the first 80 pages very good. A smooth set up with likable characters. But then it went downhill quickly, leading up to a convoluted finish that was unsatisfying.
May 16, 2017
Total fluff. good when you need a mindless read.
June 17, 2017
Enormously enjoyable pastiche of the Nero Wolfe books. Well done and pleasant
June 24, 2018
8/10
240 pages
240 pages
June 28, 2019
We loved this book. It was light and funny and a great listen in the car.
July 27, 2021
A quick mystery on a rainy summer day.
August 14, 2021
An enjoyable read that doesn't take itself too seriously.
September 2, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
December 26, 2025
sometimes you just want to escape into a gritty world of hoods and private eyes, of damsels in distress. Lawrence Block is one of the greats of hardboiled crime and this is one of his funniest
July 30, 2018
A good little mystery.
February 27, 2012
The mystery of Makeout With Murder was interesting enough, and the conceit that Haig was a mystery novel aficionado, obsessed to the point that he believed Nero Wolfe was a real person, was frankly awesome. So, that part was good. But, Chip Harrison? He's the narrator. And, for the most part he's written well, and has some nice breaking the wall moments that make for a different sort of novel. But, the sex? His constant erections got kind of distracting and seemed pretty stupid. Full disclosure: At one time I was a 19 year old and that did not ring true. The first time Chip couldn't walk because of an erection I just cringed and thought “That's what made for edgy comedy in the '70s” The second and third time I realized it wasn't going to go away. To be fair, the rest of the book really did make up for it. The mystery was logically and satisfactorily solved, and all of the characters offered something interesting to the story.
Having said that. There's too much out there and this wasn't good enough to keep going with the series. This will be the last Chip Harrison story I read.
Having said that. There's too much out there and this wasn't good enough to keep going with the series. This will be the last Chip Harrison story I read.
October 11, 2014
I loved this book. Lawrence Block has to be one of the first, if not the first, writer of fan fiction. Leo Haig is trying to be Nero Wolfe. He actually think Nero Wolfe exists. He is his own genius but everything else about him is him trying to be Nero Wolfe.
Block has a wonderful style and even gets the narrator, Haig's legman Chip Harrison to promote his previous books. They are really Chip's previous books, so it isn't block try the hard sell it's Chip.
Brilliant.
This is not the best thing I have ever read by Block but it is good and whilst I guessed the connection of the victims to the murderer I didn't guess who the murderer was.
If you want a quick easy read with a murder mystery bent give this book a go. You won't be disappointed.
Block has a wonderful style and even gets the narrator, Haig's legman Chip Harrison to promote his previous books. They are really Chip's previous books, so it isn't block try the hard sell it's Chip.
Brilliant.
This is not the best thing I have ever read by Block but it is good and whilst I guessed the connection of the victims to the murderer I didn't guess who the murderer was.
If you want a quick easy read with a murder mystery bent give this book a go. You won't be disappointed.
March 15, 2014
#3 in the Chip Harrison series. APA "Five Little Rich Girls", this 1974 series entry is the 3rd of 4 for this short lived Block character. Amusing, with Chip's boss Leo Haig a Nero Wolfe parody.
Chip Harrison is settling in as assistant to detective Leo Haig. Chip discovers the body of his girlfriend, Melanie Trelawney. Chip and Leo are suspicious, especially considering the previous "accidental" deaths of two of Melanie's four sisters. Determined to protect the remaining Trelawney siblings, Chip and Leo work to unravel the machinations of a savvy and sinister killer.
Chip Harrison is settling in as assistant to detective Leo Haig. Chip discovers the body of his girlfriend, Melanie Trelawney. Chip and Leo are suspicious, especially considering the previous "accidental" deaths of two of Melanie's four sisters. Determined to protect the remaining Trelawney siblings, Chip and Leo work to unravel the machinations of a savvy and sinister killer.
January 1, 2014
The story was enjoyable. I'm still not sure if it was a satire on the Nero Wolf mysteries or if Lawrence Block was paying homage to the fat genius. Either way, it was entertaining. I loved the way all the suspects were gathered in a room for the grand finale - pure nostalgia. Although it's not one of his best works, Make our with Murder is certainly worth a read..
June 11, 2011
I do love Lawrence Block. I love his Matt Scudder series, and I also love his Burglar cozy series. But, I did not like this book.
Standalone. I so wanted to like this book. It is a piece of 1960s/1970s sex fluff (nothing wrong with that--just didn't live up to Block) and I am sorry I finished it.
Standalone. I so wanted to like this book. It is a piece of 1960s/1970s sex fluff (nothing wrong with that--just didn't live up to Block) and I am sorry I finished it.
November 25, 2012
I very much like the Matthew Scudder series, and years ago I read the first two Chip Harrison books. This is a quick read, redeemed primarily by the many references to other mystery authors and characters.
Want to read
September 28, 2009AKA: Sheldon Lord, Jill Emerson, Paul Kavanaugh, Chip Harrison, Lawrence Block
September 3, 2011
Very early Block, but with his usual charm. Chip Harrison as the leg-man for stay-at-home investigator Leo Haig.
February 25, 2019
OK, now Chip has some mystery elements
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews