The Twisted Ones

by Lawrence Block

From the You might be surprised to learn that back in 1961 Nightstand Books published an inquiry into the heartbreak of scoliosis, but—oh, hang on a minute. You say the title refers to characters who are not spinally but psychosexually bent? Oh.Well, never mind. Dave and Nancy Grantland look for all the world like happy couple leading a comfortable suburban lifestyle. And Lucy King, the regular babysitter for the Gavilans next door, looks for all the world like a normal teenager. But Dave’s lost interest in sex with his wife, as he increasingly becomes obsessed with the desire for a much younger partner. Not a Lolita, exactly, but someone a few years under the age of consent.And Nancy’s recalling her college days as what we’ve since learned to call a LUG. (That’s Lesbian Until Graduation. But you knew that, right?) And Lucy’s ready for sexual experience, but with whom? Someone more knowledgable than her oafish boyfriend? Dave finds a café in the West 20s where a man named Hassan can supply anything he wants. Nancy finds a job working for a woman named Bobbie, who can supply anything she wants. Lucy finds a man who’ll teach her what she wants to learn—and what she doesn’t.Can you see where this is going? Well, along the way you’ll get to look over Dave’s shoulder as he watches a pornographic movie, courtesy of Hassan. I’m not sure which book was the first in which I employed this device, but the editors at Nightstand thought it was a great way to spice up the books, and I was encouraged to include such scenarios in future books. Well, you know, you didn’t have to tell me twice…A Google search advises me that in 1959, two years before this book appeared, Gold Medal published Marijane Meaker's suspense novel, The Twisted Ones, under her pen name of Vin Packer. My guess is that it's a better book than mine, but who's to say you won't enjoy them both?

184 pages, Paperback

Published December 9, 2019

About the author

Lawrence 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.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

The description on this book's page is Block's and he's a bit dismissive even as he claims this Andrew Shaw by-lined Nightstand as his own. By the time this one came out in 1961 Block had probably 20 of these sleazers under his typewriter, so the prose is oily smooth, an easy read. The plot is all about desire and Block does that well, chasing all of the character's desires down, pitching them into fever. Supposed to be a lot of sex, and even though it just gets better and better and better for the participants, that's about how explicit the descriptions get.

Contains one of Block's inside jokes: In the second chapter one of the characters gives a book by Lesley Evans - Strange are the Ways of Love - to another character and tells her to read it. This was actually Block's first published novel written under a different pseudo.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A novel of tormented desires. Outwardly normal, in secret their passions ran amok!"

Meet the neighbors on Long Island:

Dave Grantland, thirty-four years old, a successful Madison Avenue ad man with lots of money and a gorgeous wife. But he is unable to love her the way a man should. At twenty-nine, she is too old for him. Dave, you see, is an aberrant who only yearns for teenage girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen….

Nancy Grantland knows her marriage is in trouble, but she believes it's her fault. For years, she has suppressed her bisexuality but now finds herself wishing she could leave Dave for her new female boss…

Lucy King is the sixteen-year old babysitter who lives just around the corner. She desperately wants to be initiated into the strange, pleasurable rites of adult love. Not by any silly boy from her high school but by a man who knows what he is doing…

And finally, Kyros, your friendly neighborhood human trafficker. He can make everyone's twisted desires into reality, for a price…

Lawrence Block has said that writing pseudonymous sleaze novels in the 1950's was a marvelous education in learning to write crime novels. I guess that makes sense. This one sure has plenty of crimes in it. Some were illegal back in 1961 but are ok today. Others have probably been outlawed since the fall of the Roman Empire.

I doubt if this book made me a better person for having read it, but Block always knows how to turn a memorable phrase:

"They had been on the couch, of course. He had been touching her, touching the promised land with the interest of Moses. The parallel went further than that, as it happened. Like Moses, he was getting a glimpse of the promised land without ever being admitted to it."

So, Dave Grantland is Block's Humbert Humbert, and Lucy his Lolita. Unlike Nabakov, though, he pulls his punches in the final chapter by having them get properly and legally married, with her parents begrudging consent, of course. I don't know if this is an artistic choice, or if the censors of the era insisted that a façade of decency be restored for the edification of the reading public.

This book was reprinted in 1973 as The Unashamed.

I alternated between my paperback copy and the virtual voice audiobook narration. (This was my first time trying virtual voice; I was surprised at how natural it sounds.)