Getting Off

July 4, 2011
MWA Grand Master Block revives his Jill Emerson alias for the first time since the 1970s for this extremely violent erotic novel that works better as soft-core porn than as noir. As a child growing up in smalltown Minnesota, femme fatale Kit Tolliver suffers years of sexual abuse from her father. Blaming her mother for failing to stop the incest, she fakes her quarreling parents' murder-suicide and gets away with it. Her neighbors view her as a brave survivor of a devastating trauma. As a grown woman suffering from long-lasting and deep-seated psychological wounds, Tolliver devotes her life to seeking out and killing men she's slept with. At one point as she travels around the U.S., she has to turn investigator to track down some of her quarry. Tolliver, who hasn't a shred of remorse for her victims, isn't a particularly appealing antiheroine, and after the first few slayings, the action drags.

September 15, 2011

In Hard Case Crime's first hardcover release, Block slips into his Jill Emerson persona to present a "novel of sex and violence." Child incest victim Katherine Anne Tolliver grows up to have a killer face, killer bod, and killer personality--as in, serial killer. After murdering her parents, she goes on a cross-country killing spree that makes Ted Bundy look like Mickey Mouse. The uberslut psycho bitch has a seemingly unquenchable thirst for sex and murder. She's obsessed with tracking down every guy she's ever slept with (Google, every killer's best friend), giving him another thrill ride in the sack, and then doing him in (and since he's dead, might as well take his money). Her bed 'em and dead 'em plan takes her through a series of fleabag hotels, greasy spoons, and low-end jobs (the pay stinks, but she gets to butcher her boss). Fate brings her to board in a house owned by Rita. The two become fast friends and, ultimately, bedmates who share every secret. VERDICT Featuring truckloads of hard-core sex and violence, this sleazefest isn't for everybody, but taken in the spirit in which it's presented, it's a trashy, fun read.--Mike Rogers, Library Journal

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011
Four decades ago, Lawrence Block wrote soft-core pulps under the pseudonym Jill Emerson. Now, for the Hard Case Crime relaunch, Block reprises Emerson with a retro thriller subtitled A Novel of Sex and Violence. It has both in abundance, but it also boasts Block's legendary craftsmanship, sly humor, and virtuoso plotting. The premise is to die for: Katherine Tolliver, abused as a child, likes to have sex with men but especially likes to kill them afterward. A few have escaped the deadly postcoital cuddle, and Kim, as Katherine's now calling herself, decides to track them down and close the deal. Only then, she hopes, will she be able to have sex with the woman she loves without needing to kill her in the afterglow. The story line may strike some as distasteful, but give Block a chance, and you'll be rooting for this thoroughly beguiling serial killer on a mission. A pro's pro, Block never wastes a word, never misplaces a plot element. He tells the story straight, but a trickly little grin always hides around the edges of his sentences.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)