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Evan Tanner #1
The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep
Evan Michael Tanner hasn't slept in more than a decade—not since a small piece of battlefield shrapnel invaded his skull and obliterated his brain's sleep center. Still, he's managed to find numerous inventive ways to occupy his waking hours. Tanner is a card-carrying member of hundreds of international organizations, from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Order to the Flat Earth Society—not because he believes in their myriad lost causes, he's simply a joiner by nature. Besides, it gives him something to do. The Russians think Tanner is a CIA operative on a covert mission. The CIA is certain he's a Soviet agent. Actually, he's in Turkey pursuing a fortune in hidden Armenian gold. But Tanner's up for anything, including a little spycraft, if it helps him reach his big payday. And if need be, he'll even start a small revolution . . .
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
183 people are currently reading
695 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
768 books2,995 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 129 reviews
September 1, 2020
For all the guy's mishaps that kept piling on and on, this was a great laugh!
Listening to grandmother's tales is a dangerous business, especially if one if Evan Tanner, joiner extraordinaire.
Q: He was too mad to get into serious trouble. (c)
Q: His was a noble madness and a special form of lunacy that I was happy to share with him. One may, in this happy world, believe what one wishes to believe. (c)
An MC who's not just a joiner of lost causes but a professional writer of academic theses and dissertations who just happens to be a self-taught polyglot (Turkish, Armenian, Spanish, Croat, ) and a polymath. A non-sleeping one. And a burglar. Quite the hobbies.
Can't help wondering what it could say about a person who loves undertaking dozens of barely reasonable causes. Would they be considered as ones scared of success (even accidental!) enough to try doing only impossible things?
So, this guy is bonkers:
Q:
You belong, it would seem, to the Pan-Hellenic Friendship Society. True?”
“Yes.”
“And to the League for the Restoration of Cilician Armenia?”
“Yes.” …“I’m a joiner,”
...
You also belong to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Clann-na-Gaille. You are a member of the Flat Earth Society of England, the Macedonian Friendship League, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Libertarian League, the Society for a Free Croatia, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajadores de España, the Committee Allied Against Fluoridation, the Serbian Brotherhood, the Nazdóya Fedèróvka, and the Lithuanian Army-in-Exile.” …
Can you explain yourself?”
“Lost causes interest me.” (c)
... and he's OK with it:
Q:
You don’t make any sense.”
“That’s true,” (c)
Heaping trouble upon trouble? No problem:
Q:
You help them cheat?”
“I help them compensate for their personal inadequacies.” (c)
Q:
People have said that it looks more like a library than an apartment. There are four rooms besides the kitchen and the bath, and in each room the walls are done in floor-to-ceiling bookcases, almost all of which are full. (c)
Q:
When one is a compulsive reader and researcher and when one has a full twenty-four hours a day at his disposal, not having to allot eight for sleep and eight for work, one certainly ought to have plenty of books on hand. (c)
Q:
Why should a Ph.D. awarded for an extended essay on color symbolism in the poetry of Pushkin have anything to do with a man’s competence to develop a sales promotion campaign for a manufacturer of ladies’ underwear? (c)
Q:
Research is a joy, especially when one is not burdened with an excessive reverence for the truth. By inventing an occasional source and injecting an occasional spurious footnote, one softens the harsh curves in the royal road of scholarship. (c)
Q:
So he thought I was James Bond, did he? Fine. Just for that I was going to be James Bond. (c)
Q:
Nora sang “Danny Boy” in a high willowy voice that had us all crying, and I taught them a group of songs from the Rebellion of 1798 that not one of them had he(card before. (c)
Q:
Little men with special schemes and secret dark hungers. And I knew these men. (c)
Q:
There was a road map of Ireland in the glove compartment. I opened it and found out approximately where I was. I was approximately lost. (c)
Q:
I thought for a moment that I must have gone schizophrenic, that it was I who attempted to escape the police and who was shot down by them, and that it was a symptom of my madness that I thought it had happened to someone else. (с)
Q:
I knew him as a fellow member of the Federation of Iberian Anarchists. It was a dangerous thing to be in Spain, and I had trouble convincing him that I was not an agent of the Civil Guard.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered. If he had gone on thinking of me as an agent of Franco’s secret police, he would have cooperated with me. Instead, I went to great lengths to convince him who I was and I only succeeded in terrifying him. (c)
Q:
“But why do you come to me?”
“I have to go to Turkey,” I explained.
“Am I an airplane? (c)
Q:
The Basque language is one I do not speak or understand, an almost impossible language to learn if one is not born to it. The grammatical construction is as much of a nightmare as the language of the Hopi Indians. (c)
Q:
He was a madman and a nuisance, yet in his own disquieting way he was good company for a trip of this sort. He gave me an unusual amount of self-confidence. He was so utterly lost, so incapable of coping with any situation, that by comparison I felt myself wholly in command of things. (c)
Q:
And it pleased me to believe that one day Croatia would throw off the yoke of the Belgrade Government and take her rightful place among the nations, just as it pleased me to believe that Prince Rupert would one day dispossess Betty Saxe-Coburg from Buckingham Palace, that the Irish Republican Army would liberate the Six Counties, that Cilician Armenia would be again reborn and, for that matter, that the earth was flat. (c)
Q:
These men of mine might lead equally futile lives, but they would be professionals in their futility. I could count on them. (c)
Q:
“Tanner, I realize that you’re gung ho. I realize you’re loaded up to your old wazoo with esprit de corps and all that. We’re very tall on those commodities around here, as far as that goes. God bless the agency, and long may she wave. And you probably feel the same way about your own group, right?” (c) Ha-ha-ha.
Listening to grandmother's tales is a dangerous business, especially if one if Evan Tanner, joiner extraordinaire.
Q: He was too mad to get into serious trouble. (c)
Q: His was a noble madness and a special form of lunacy that I was happy to share with him. One may, in this happy world, believe what one wishes to believe. (c)
An MC who's not just a joiner of lost causes but a professional writer of academic theses and dissertations who just happens to be a self-taught polyglot (Turkish, Armenian, Spanish, Croat, ) and a polymath. A non-sleeping one. And a burglar. Quite the hobbies.
Can't help wondering what it could say about a person who loves undertaking dozens of barely reasonable causes. Would they be considered as ones scared of success (even accidental!) enough to try doing only impossible things?
So, this guy is bonkers:
Q:
You belong, it would seem, to the Pan-Hellenic Friendship Society. True?”
“Yes.”
“And to the League for the Restoration of Cilician Armenia?”
“Yes.” …“I’m a joiner,”
...
You also belong to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Clann-na-Gaille. You are a member of the Flat Earth Society of England, the Macedonian Friendship League, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Libertarian League, the Society for a Free Croatia, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajadores de España, the Committee Allied Against Fluoridation, the Serbian Brotherhood, the Nazdóya Fedèróvka, and the Lithuanian Army-in-Exile.” …
Can you explain yourself?”
“Lost causes interest me.” (c)
... and he's OK with it:
Q:
You don’t make any sense.”
“That’s true,” (c)
Heaping trouble upon trouble? No problem:
Q:
You help them cheat?”
“I help them compensate for their personal inadequacies.” (c)
Q:
People have said that it looks more like a library than an apartment. There are four rooms besides the kitchen and the bath, and in each room the walls are done in floor-to-ceiling bookcases, almost all of which are full. (c)
Q:
When one is a compulsive reader and researcher and when one has a full twenty-four hours a day at his disposal, not having to allot eight for sleep and eight for work, one certainly ought to have plenty of books on hand. (c)
Q:
Why should a Ph.D. awarded for an extended essay on color symbolism in the poetry of Pushkin have anything to do with a man’s competence to develop a sales promotion campaign for a manufacturer of ladies’ underwear? (c)
Q:
Research is a joy, especially when one is not burdened with an excessive reverence for the truth. By inventing an occasional source and injecting an occasional spurious footnote, one softens the harsh curves in the royal road of scholarship. (c)
Q:
So he thought I was James Bond, did he? Fine. Just for that I was going to be James Bond. (c)
Q:
Nora sang “Danny Boy” in a high willowy voice that had us all crying, and I taught them a group of songs from the Rebellion of 1798 that not one of them had he(card before. (c)
Q:
Little men with special schemes and secret dark hungers. And I knew these men. (c)
Q:
There was a road map of Ireland in the glove compartment. I opened it and found out approximately where I was. I was approximately lost. (c)
Q:
I thought for a moment that I must have gone schizophrenic, that it was I who attempted to escape the police and who was shot down by them, and that it was a symptom of my madness that I thought it had happened to someone else. (с)
Q:
I knew him as a fellow member of the Federation of Iberian Anarchists. It was a dangerous thing to be in Spain, and I had trouble convincing him that I was not an agent of the Civil Guard.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered. If he had gone on thinking of me as an agent of Franco’s secret police, he would have cooperated with me. Instead, I went to great lengths to convince him who I was and I only succeeded in terrifying him. (c)
Q:
“But why do you come to me?”
“I have to go to Turkey,” I explained.
“Am I an airplane? (c)
Q:
The Basque language is one I do not speak or understand, an almost impossible language to learn if one is not born to it. The grammatical construction is as much of a nightmare as the language of the Hopi Indians. (c)
Q:
He was a madman and a nuisance, yet in his own disquieting way he was good company for a trip of this sort. He gave me an unusual amount of self-confidence. He was so utterly lost, so incapable of coping with any situation, that by comparison I felt myself wholly in command of things. (c)
Q:
And it pleased me to believe that one day Croatia would throw off the yoke of the Belgrade Government and take her rightful place among the nations, just as it pleased me to believe that Prince Rupert would one day dispossess Betty Saxe-Coburg from Buckingham Palace, that the Irish Republican Army would liberate the Six Counties, that Cilician Armenia would be again reborn and, for that matter, that the earth was flat. (c)
Q:
These men of mine might lead equally futile lives, but they would be professionals in their futility. I could count on them. (c)
Q:
“Tanner, I realize that you’re gung ho. I realize you’re loaded up to your old wazoo with esprit de corps and all that. We’re very tall on those commodities around here, as far as that goes. God bless the agency, and long may she wave. And you probably feel the same way about your own group, right?” (c) Ha-ha-ha.
January 10, 2018
Is this a caper comedy? A spy thriller? Revolutionary tract? Social commentary? Who the hell knows, but it doesn't matter. The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep by Lawrence Block is just good, solid fun!
Evan Tanner is a complicated fella. A war vet with terminal insomnia, Tanner put his eight hours -give or take- to learn and practice a good many things. He's a multi-talented individual who decides to use those talents to steal a massive pile of gold. Will he put it to good use? Probably...perhaps. That's not really the point. This is about good old action-adventure good times...I think.
At times I felt like I was reading a James Bond novel. This was assisted by Block mentioning Bond about a dozen times. Then the story will take a comedic turn and it feels more like Candide. The comedic turns pile up so much that when the book switches gears and becomes very For Whom the Bell Tolls with a dryly-related and graphically bloody revolution it's somewhat jarring. Hell, it's very jarring to have women and children getting cut in half and heads blown off by gun fire after you've settled into a lighter, more humorous style.
This is the first in the Tanner series and one of Block's earlier books. Not earliest. I believe he had at least ten years of published work under his belt already. So, while this is rougher than his later work and a bit stiff, The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep is still competent material with an exciting flair that makes for flat out fun reading. I'll probably continue on with the series in the future.
Evan Tanner is a complicated fella. A war vet with terminal insomnia, Tanner put his eight hours -give or take- to learn and practice a good many things. He's a multi-talented individual who decides to use those talents to steal a massive pile of gold. Will he put it to good use? Probably...perhaps. That's not really the point. This is about good old action-adventure good times...I think.
At times I felt like I was reading a James Bond novel. This was assisted by Block mentioning Bond about a dozen times. Then the story will take a comedic turn and it feels more like Candide. The comedic turns pile up so much that when the book switches gears and becomes very For Whom the Bell Tolls with a dryly-related and graphically bloody revolution it's somewhat jarring. Hell, it's very jarring to have women and children getting cut in half and heads blown off by gun fire after you've settled into a lighter, more humorous style.
This is the first in the Tanner series and one of Block's earlier books. Not earliest. I believe he had at least ten years of published work under his belt already. So, while this is rougher than his later work and a bit stiff, The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep is still competent material with an exciting flair that makes for flat out fun reading. I'll probably continue on with the series in the future.
Want to read
October 5, 2017This copy is signed by Lawrence Block.
June 8, 2018
Marvelous, absolutely Marvelous, Lawrence Block has never failed to impress me before and this time is no exception. it was a fun thrilling spy novel.
The story revolves around Evan Michael Tanner, who suffers from terminal insomnia due to a wound he received during the Korean war. So he spends his waking hours learning new languages , joining lost causes and political groups. After learning about a cache of gold lost and forgotten in Turkey 40 years ago, he decided to go there in order to retrieve it. However, the fact he's a " Joiner" has complicated the matters, making his quest nearly impossible. So he decides to enter Turkey through the back door. In order to do that, he has to travel through Europe using his skills (Languages and membership in many groups) as a weapon to achieve his goal.
The story revolves around Evan Michael Tanner, who suffers from terminal insomnia due to a wound he received during the Korean war. So he spends his waking hours learning new languages , joining lost causes and political groups. After learning about a cache of gold lost and forgotten in Turkey 40 years ago, he decided to go there in order to retrieve it. However, the fact he's a " Joiner" has complicated the matters, making his quest nearly impossible. So he decides to enter Turkey through the back door. In order to do that, he has to travel through Europe using his skills (Languages and membership in many groups) as a weapon to achieve his goal.
January 22, 2015
It’s an odd book, this. Set in the 1960’s, this madcap caper has a man called Evan Tanner chasing around Europe looking for gold that has been hidden away in Turkey for some 40 years. As a result of an injury he sustained in the Korean War, Evan doesn’t sleep – ever. This gives him a number of advantages he utilises to the full, and he needs to as he gets into a lot of trouble along the way.
The book is the first of a series Block penned, mainly during a five-year period from 1966, though there was a later, and potentially final, episode released in 1998. It’s unlike anything else I’ve come across from this prodigiously productive writer. It’s funny – though Tanner is not as wry as LB’s book-seller/burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr - but I can’t quite pigeon hole this story. It’s not crime fiction (his normal bread and butter) and it’s not purely comedic. It might have pretentions to be a thriller… but it’s not particularly thrilling. I give up!
The enjoyment here is in the journey and in admiring how Tanner extricates himself from one predicament after another. The writing is crisp and up to the author’s early standard – in other words, pretty good but not as refined as it would become.
As a footnote, there’s some historical interest here as Tanner links up with a number of nationalist groups on his travels. For example, his adventures in the Balkans reflect the stresses and inter-rivalries experienced by various factions within the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Overall it’s an ok read. But probably one for stalwart LB fans and others simply interested in passing a few hours in the company of something quick and unchallenging.
The book is the first of a series Block penned, mainly during a five-year period from 1966, though there was a later, and potentially final, episode released in 1998. It’s unlike anything else I’ve come across from this prodigiously productive writer. It’s funny – though Tanner is not as wry as LB’s book-seller/burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr - but I can’t quite pigeon hole this story. It’s not crime fiction (his normal bread and butter) and it’s not purely comedic. It might have pretentions to be a thriller… but it’s not particularly thrilling. I give up!
The enjoyment here is in the journey and in admiring how Tanner extricates himself from one predicament after another. The writing is crisp and up to the author’s early standard – in other words, pretty good but not as refined as it would become.
As a footnote, there’s some historical interest here as Tanner links up with a number of nationalist groups on his travels. For example, his adventures in the Balkans reflect the stresses and inter-rivalries experienced by various factions within the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Overall it’s an ok read. But probably one for stalwart LB fans and others simply interested in passing a few hours in the company of something quick and unchallenging.
August 30, 2020
I've read a fair few of Lawrence Block's crime novels over the years. This is the first one of his Evan Tanner series I've tried. I vote a big thumb's up. Tanner, of course, is the man who never sleeps due to a war wound he incurred in Korea. His wakefulness serves him well in several critical scenes. As with most of Block's fiction, the pace is frenetic, the action rigorous, and the characters hardboiled. Tanner is a likeable enough good guy. If I can find other ebooks in the series, I'll get to them sooner or later.
November 14, 2008
One can see the origins of Bernie Rhodenbarr in this delightful early work of Block. Evan Michael Tanner is an advocate of lost causes. He also can’t sleep. In the Korean War, his “sleep center” was destroyed by a piece of shrapnel. Now on disability, he tells people he earns extra money by being a “stentaphator,” which he defines as someone who takes tests and writes papers for students who would rather not. He compensates for their personal inadequacies. “Stentaphators are subsidiary scholars concerned with suasion and ambidexterity.” At least that’s what he tells the Turkish authorities who arrest him at the border. He belongs to too many weird organizations, including the Flat Earth Society of Middlesex, England. When asked why he is in Turkey – the authorities assume he is a spy working for the CIA, especially after the CIA denies that he does – he replies that he is there to purchase counterfeit coins. It is not illegal in Turkey to create counterfeit coins of other nationalities, only Turkish, and Tanner wants to have a counterfeiter make fake Armenian coins and then sell them in the U.S. as genuine. Of course, his real reason for being in Turkey was to steal $3,000,000 in gold.
Now if you think that’s bizarre. . . . Block, who has written more novels than he has kept track of, somewhere over fifty, embarked a few years ago on a trip to visit every town named Buffalo in the country. So far he and his wife have been to more than seventy places by that name.
Now if you think that’s bizarre. . . . Block, who has written more novels than he has kept track of, somewhere over fifty, embarked a few years ago on a trip to visit every town named Buffalo in the country. So far he and his wife have been to more than seventy places by that name.
August 23, 2019
Tanner is an interesting character in t he doesn't sleep so he gets a lot more accomplished in 24 hours than most of us, and, like most of Block's characters operates slightly outside the law if he feels the situation justifies it.
March 23, 2013
First book of Tanner series I have read. Very different character than Keller or Rhodenbarr, but very enjoyable. The next one in the series will be on my "To Read" list ASAP!
May 6, 2023
Easy to read adventure of sleep deprived Korean War veteran Evan Tanner as he weaves his way through Europe in pursuit of lost Armenian gold. The author appears to have historical foresight of the 1990’s Balkan war as Tanner encounters characters in the region who have a clear dislike and mistrust of each other.
December 1, 2015
Subversively delightful... Mr Tanner's exploits are so outrageously engrossing that you can't stop anywhere till the end... can't wait to read the others..
January 23, 2024
This book on sale for $2.99. Happy I grabbed a copy and once started the book it could not be put down. Another night without sleep but it was worth it. It had been a while since reading Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, a favorite of mine, but this book is very entertaining.
May 21, 2008
Evan Tanner lost his ability to sleep when he was wounded by a piece of shrapnel in Korea. He uses his extra waking hours to read, learn languages, and write theses for money. He has the unique hobby of joining lost cause organizations, in fact, he belongs to hundreds of them. He is a con man and a thief and upon learning of a treasure of hidden Armenian gold he takes off to claim it, landing himself in a Turkish prison and involved in a revolution before getting a chance at the treasure.
November 7, 2016
Incoherent, bonkers fluff from Block circa 1966.
Wearing its Bond influences on its sleeve Tanner travels throughout Europe in a mad plot to recover lost gold while stirring up trouble and literally fomenting a revolution.
As mad as an attaché case full of frogs, but somehow charming in its daftness.
Wearing its Bond influences on its sleeve Tanner travels throughout Europe in a mad plot to recover lost gold while stirring up trouble and literally fomenting a revolution.
As mad as an attaché case full of frogs, but somehow charming in its daftness.
October 6, 2025
⭐️⭐️ Two Stars — “The Saint Takes a Nap (But Tanner Can’t)”
Okay, let’s get this out of the way: I love Lawrence Block. The man could make a tax audit sound like a hardboiled confession. His Bernie Rhodenbarr books? Delightfully witty. His Matthew Scudder novels? Gritty perfection. But The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep? For me, it felt like someone tried to Americanize "The Saint"… and accidentally left Simon Templar stranded at customs.
This was Block’s first stab at comedy, and boy, you can tell. Evan Tanner is a spy, thief, idealist, and insomniac (literally—he got a war wound that deleted his sleep function). The premise sounds fun, but instead of globe-trotting excitement, what we get reads more like Lonely Planet: Espionage Edition. Each country comes with its own brochure, complete with caricature locals and a big ol’ “America Saves the Day” stamp. For anyone who’s actually traveled through Europe with Americans, the irony is delicious.
That said, there are moments when Block’s sharp wit glimmers through—especially the ending, which is equal parts absurd and inevitable. The little revolution Tanner kicks off in Macedonia is so accidentally violent it’s almost poetic. And if you’re into mid-century geopolitics (Turkey! Armenia! Free Croatia!), you’ll find plenty of cocktail-party trivia here.
But the pacing stumbles, the charm feels borrowed, and Tanner himself never quite comes alive. His encyclopedic recall of obscure revolutionary movements is about as believable as a spy who can’t nap but still manages to flirt, fight, and philosophize before breakfast.
It’s not terrible—it’s just... dated. Like a Cold War souvenir: shiny, nostalgic, but you wouldn’t want to carry it through customs again.
So yes, I’ll be heading back to Bernie Rhodenbarr’s Manhattan instead, where the thefts are clever, the dialogue sparkles, and nobody’s trying to liberate Macedonia before lunch.
Okay, let’s get this out of the way: I love Lawrence Block. The man could make a tax audit sound like a hardboiled confession. His Bernie Rhodenbarr books? Delightfully witty. His Matthew Scudder novels? Gritty perfection. But The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep? For me, it felt like someone tried to Americanize "The Saint"… and accidentally left Simon Templar stranded at customs.
This was Block’s first stab at comedy, and boy, you can tell. Evan Tanner is a spy, thief, idealist, and insomniac (literally—he got a war wound that deleted his sleep function). The premise sounds fun, but instead of globe-trotting excitement, what we get reads more like Lonely Planet: Espionage Edition. Each country comes with its own brochure, complete with caricature locals and a big ol’ “America Saves the Day” stamp. For anyone who’s actually traveled through Europe with Americans, the irony is delicious.
That said, there are moments when Block’s sharp wit glimmers through—especially the ending, which is equal parts absurd and inevitable. The little revolution Tanner kicks off in Macedonia is so accidentally violent it’s almost poetic. And if you’re into mid-century geopolitics (Turkey! Armenia! Free Croatia!), you’ll find plenty of cocktail-party trivia here.
But the pacing stumbles, the charm feels borrowed, and Tanner himself never quite comes alive. His encyclopedic recall of obscure revolutionary movements is about as believable as a spy who can’t nap but still manages to flirt, fight, and philosophize before breakfast.
It’s not terrible—it’s just... dated. Like a Cold War souvenir: shiny, nostalgic, but you wouldn’t want to carry it through customs again.
So yes, I’ll be heading back to Bernie Rhodenbarr’s Manhattan instead, where the thefts are clever, the dialogue sparkles, and nobody’s trying to liberate Macedonia before lunch.
April 24, 2023
Much like Richard Stark's Dortmunder series, this was a bit too farcial for my tastes.
April 22, 2012
A fascinating spin on the spy genre, Block creates an engaging character in Evan Michael Tanner, whose sleep center was destroyed by shrapnel during the Korean War. Though he compensates for his inability to sleep by a combination of physical rest and meditative techniques, he finds he has a lot of free time on his hands upon his return stateside. He uses this time by learning many foreign languages, joining a number of "lost causes" (groups and organizations whose goals will most likely remain forever unattainable, and researching a variety of subjects to write term papers for payment from rich college students.
With this background, his accidental recruitment into a super-secret covert organization makes him an ideal agent for their purposes. Block keep tongue firmly in cheek as he sends Tanner traveling from one end of the globe to the other taking on a variety of missions. I'm thinking it's high time I re-read this first book in the series once more.
With this background, his accidental recruitment into a super-secret covert organization makes him an ideal agent for their purposes. Block keep tongue firmly in cheek as he sends Tanner traveling from one end of the globe to the other taking on a variety of missions. I'm thinking it's high time I re-read this first book in the series once more.
October 10, 2017
I’ve read block before and he does approach his writing in an unusual way. But this was really something. A vibrant character that embarks on a haplessly adventure through many countries and many unusual, quirky characters. The writing is as fresh today as it was when this book first came out in 1966.
I’m amazed at the vast amount of fascinating characters Block created in this book and how he assembled all of them, in their many locations, with their very individual stories, the main character’s story and so much more within 200 pages. Outstanding work.
On top of it all this book is superbly written. The writing makes it very difficult to put the book down. There’s also an energy to Block’s writing that helps the characters and story pop out.
Definitely in the top 5 of books I’ve read this year.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.
I’m amazed at the vast amount of fascinating characters Block created in this book and how he assembled all of them, in their many locations, with their very individual stories, the main character’s story and so much more within 200 pages. Outstanding work.
On top of it all this book is superbly written. The writing makes it very difficult to put the book down. There’s also an energy to Block’s writing that helps the characters and story pop out.
Definitely in the top 5 of books I’ve read this year.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.
January 26, 2015
The title is a misnomer: it's more of thriller/spy fiction than mystery. But everything else about this book is pure gold. Plainly a comic novel (written in two parts, and originally published under a pseudonym), it introduces Evan Tanner, a who took a hunk of shrapnel in the Korean War, and now has no need to sleep. Instead, he immerses himself in lost causes, while earning his pay forging test papers for local NYC graduate students. That's how he spots an opportunity for profit--only it turns out vastly more complicated, and requires a lot of lies.
Of the sequels, only "Tanner's Twelve Swingers" is good (and it's also five stars).
Of the sequels, only "Tanner's Twelve Swingers" is good (and it's also five stars).
December 9, 2019
Another entertaining character from the pen of Lawrence Block. appreciated to 'potted histories' that popped up and the varied and quirky characters. I guess it's inevitable that it is a male populated story with the occasional woman coming across the page but I would read another one.
October 22, 2017
Very dull and slow for a Lawrence Block story. Interesting twist at the end.
July 22, 2018
Extra-large print , very funny and a 2-day read ; what's not to like .
July 19, 2025
It was 40 years ago that I first started reading Lawrence Block, and his Evan Tanner series – which started in 1966 when lots of authors were diving into lucrative James Bond territory – was my entry point. I was immediately hooked, and the influence of Block and the Tanner novels on my own writing style cannot possibly be overstated. I loved the idea of a spy novel featuring a guy who is incapable of sleep due to a war injury, whose hobby is joining hundreds of international organisations with hopeless causes (like, say, returning the Stuart line to the throne of England), and ends up working for a secret agency so secret that he doesn’t know who they are and they don’t know he’s not actually one of their agents. Anyway, I recently decided to reread all eight books in the series to see how it holds up after all these years. And so here we are with the book that started it all.
As a permanent insomniac, Tanner spends his extra waking hours studying, learning languages, joining lost causes, and writing theses for college students. After being hired to write a thesis on the Turkish massacres in Armenia in the early 20th century, Tanner – who is a member of the League To Restore Cilician Armenia – just happens to meet Armenian belly dancer Kitty Bazerian, who grandmother tells him a tale of how, in 1922, all the gold in Smyrna (573lb) was stashed under the porch of her family’s house in Balikesir in case the Turks invaded, which they eventually did. Tanner figures there’s a good chance the gold is still there, and decides to go to Balikesir to find out and – if it is – steal it. To give you an idea of how that goes, the book opens with him in a Turkish jail cell, having been arrested at immigration.
It gets somewhat freewheeling from there, as Tanner is forced to make it up as he goes, becoming an international fugitive in the process, and leveraging his contacts with various organisations (not all of whom can be trusted) to get from one point to the next. This being a Bond-adjacent genre book, he also manages to get laid several times (hey, it was the 60s – which, incidentally, is something to keep in mind for several passages in this book). Throughout it all, what makes it work is Block’s breezy writing style, sharp dialogue, steady pacing, dry humour and generally keeping it as realistic and believable as you can keep a story involving a lost-cause enthusiast who can’t sleep trying to steal a fortune in Armenian gold. Reading it again, I can see how this made me a Block fan for life, and as international men of mystery go, I’ll still take Tanner over Bond any day.
As a permanent insomniac, Tanner spends his extra waking hours studying, learning languages, joining lost causes, and writing theses for college students. After being hired to write a thesis on the Turkish massacres in Armenia in the early 20th century, Tanner – who is a member of the League To Restore Cilician Armenia – just happens to meet Armenian belly dancer Kitty Bazerian, who grandmother tells him a tale of how, in 1922, all the gold in Smyrna (573lb) was stashed under the porch of her family’s house in Balikesir in case the Turks invaded, which they eventually did. Tanner figures there’s a good chance the gold is still there, and decides to go to Balikesir to find out and – if it is – steal it. To give you an idea of how that goes, the book opens with him in a Turkish jail cell, having been arrested at immigration.
It gets somewhat freewheeling from there, as Tanner is forced to make it up as he goes, becoming an international fugitive in the process, and leveraging his contacts with various organisations (not all of whom can be trusted) to get from one point to the next. This being a Bond-adjacent genre book, he also manages to get laid several times (hey, it was the 60s – which, incidentally, is something to keep in mind for several passages in this book). Throughout it all, what makes it work is Block’s breezy writing style, sharp dialogue, steady pacing, dry humour and generally keeping it as realistic and believable as you can keep a story involving a lost-cause enthusiast who can’t sleep trying to steal a fortune in Armenian gold. Reading it again, I can see how this made me a Block fan for life, and as international men of mystery go, I’ll still take Tanner over Bond any day.
August 1, 2025
It’s funny – I have read (and really enjoyed) nearly all of Block’s burglar books featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr and some of his Matt Scudder and Keller books, but never got to his Tanner series (to be fair, Block has written a LOT of books over his career). The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep, the first Tanner book, takes place in Turkey and other locales in Europe, and follows Tanner as he tried to track down a lost fortune in gold while pursued by various intelligence agencies trying to figure out what he is after. I did appreciate the structure (starting in the middle of things with him sitting in a Turkish prison) and the pacing, but overall the whole things felt a bit dated (to be fair, it is 60 years old). Also, it frankly was far-fetched – Keller's inability to sleep is one thing, but buying his encyclopedic recall of contacts around the globe who are members of the same fringe societies is really asking a lot. At times, it almost felt like a Bond pastiche (since Keller also has a way with the ladies). I think I will just revisit Mr. Rhodenbarr next time.
2 stars
2 stars
November 2, 2023
What a fun little yarn. Not as good as Scudder, and far less grounded, but a fun story well told.
June 9, 2024
3.5^
October 20, 2025
3.5 ⭐
A complicated jaunt around Soviet-era Europe for uncomplicated reasons.
A complicated jaunt around Soviet-era Europe for uncomplicated reasons.
December 12, 2021
This is the first book in the Evan Tanner series. It was a quick read, but I enjoyed it and want to find out what happens next.
January 7, 2017
This comedy-adventure novel is dominated by a witty examination of geopolitical events. Evan Tanner is a globe-trotting adventurer, part-time thief and part-time spy. He never sleeps due to a war wound that wiped out the sleep center in his brain; he spends his spare time learning languages and joining subversive political groups with hopeless causes.
Lawrence Block is noted for his comedic crime novels, most prominently the Bernie Rhodenbarr series (1977-2013) and the Hit Man/John Keller series (1998-2016). This 1966 novel was his first attempt at comedy, and it took the form of a spy novel with overtures of criminal activity. (Tanner's goal, in fact, is robbery--to steal 600 pounds of gold coins from Turkey.)
It lacks polish at times, and the pacing is a bit uneven, but the story succeeds more times than it fails. The ending is especially funny and yet almost inevitable in its own way.
The novel is sprinkled throughout with dry, witty geopolitical insights unique to anything else I have read from Lawrence Block. It helps to have a working knowledge of geopolitical events in the 1960’s. For example, one significant plot line involves the historical tensions between Turkey, Armenia, and Greece. This was a subject I knew nothing about. I did not realize until googled it that present-day Armenia did not even exist in 1966. At the time, it was under Turkish and Soviet control.
Tanner falls in with the IRA in Ireland and anti-Franco anarchists in Spain. The complexities of Yugoslavian ethnic groups are explored. It is ironic to see how some “lost causes” of the 60’s, such as the Free Croatia and Macedonia separatist movements, have actually come to pass in modern times.
My favorite sequence is small revolution that Tanner inadvertently ignites in Macedonia. It is an unexpectedly dark and violent episode in the middle of an otherwise light-hearted jaunt.
This is different from Block’s other series, which I appreciate, and the character has enough potential to convince me to proceed with the next entry, The Cancelled Czech.
Lawrence Block is noted for his comedic crime novels, most prominently the Bernie Rhodenbarr series (1977-2013) and the Hit Man/John Keller series (1998-2016). This 1966 novel was his first attempt at comedy, and it took the form of a spy novel with overtures of criminal activity. (Tanner's goal, in fact, is robbery--to steal 600 pounds of gold coins from Turkey.)
It lacks polish at times, and the pacing is a bit uneven, but the story succeeds more times than it fails. The ending is especially funny and yet almost inevitable in its own way.
The novel is sprinkled throughout with dry, witty geopolitical insights unique to anything else I have read from Lawrence Block. It helps to have a working knowledge of geopolitical events in the 1960’s. For example, one significant plot line involves the historical tensions between Turkey, Armenia, and Greece. This was a subject I knew nothing about. I did not realize until googled it that present-day Armenia did not even exist in 1966. At the time, it was under Turkish and Soviet control.
Tanner falls in with the IRA in Ireland and anti-Franco anarchists in Spain. The complexities of Yugoslavian ethnic groups are explored. It is ironic to see how some “lost causes” of the 60’s, such as the Free Croatia and Macedonia separatist movements, have actually come to pass in modern times.
My favorite sequence is small revolution that Tanner inadvertently ignites in Macedonia. It is an unexpectedly dark and violent episode in the middle of an otherwise light-hearted jaunt.
This is different from Block’s other series, which I appreciate, and the character has enough potential to convince me to proceed with the next entry, The Cancelled Czech.
May 13, 2020
( Format : Audiobook )
"Never thought of insomnia as a survival mechanism."
Narrator Theo Holland gives an excellent performance as the lagubrious Evan Tanner, Lawrence Block's Thief Who Couldn't Sleep, as he reads the first person tale of travel round a large part of Europe pursued by the authorities. Tanner is what? Loner, spy, thief, self satisfied and self taught scholar, a book lover, an honest man, a liar, an insurrectionist, a joined-inner - whatever he is, he's interesting. And he cannot sleep following an incident with shrapnel in Korea.
When Tanner hears an old woman's memories of a fortune being stashed in the porch of her parent's home, he starts to wonder if, just perhaps, it might still be there. And he decides to go take a look.
Lawrence Block writes in a straightforward staccato style of writing, easy to read, simple to follow, but the characters encountered are far from straightforward: they are all real characters in the fullest sense of the word. And the reader is introduced to a kaleidoscope of them, from Turkey, to Ireland and Spain, Italy, Armenia, and more, all as fascinating as the countries which Tanner travels and the situations he finds himself in. Visual, amusing, this is such an enjoyable book, enhanced by the marvellous narration.
I had read other books by the author but this was my first encounter with Evan Turner. It won't be my last. My thanks to the rights holder of The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep: I downloaded a complimentary copy, without any obligations, from the Freeaudiobookcodes website which, like the book itself, is highly recommended.
"Never thought of insomnia as a survival mechanism."
Narrator Theo Holland gives an excellent performance as the lagubrious Evan Tanner, Lawrence Block's Thief Who Couldn't Sleep, as he reads the first person tale of travel round a large part of Europe pursued by the authorities. Tanner is what? Loner, spy, thief, self satisfied and self taught scholar, a book lover, an honest man, a liar, an insurrectionist, a joined-inner - whatever he is, he's interesting. And he cannot sleep following an incident with shrapnel in Korea.
When Tanner hears an old woman's memories of a fortune being stashed in the porch of her parent's home, he starts to wonder if, just perhaps, it might still be there. And he decides to go take a look.
Lawrence Block writes in a straightforward staccato style of writing, easy to read, simple to follow, but the characters encountered are far from straightforward: they are all real characters in the fullest sense of the word. And the reader is introduced to a kaleidoscope of them, from Turkey, to Ireland and Spain, Italy, Armenia, and more, all as fascinating as the countries which Tanner travels and the situations he finds himself in. Visual, amusing, this is such an enjoyable book, enhanced by the marvellous narration.
I had read other books by the author but this was my first encounter with Evan Turner. It won't be my last. My thanks to the rights holder of The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep: I downloaded a complimentary copy, without any obligations, from the Freeaudiobookcodes website which, like the book itself, is highly recommended.
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