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Borderline
THE SCORCHING PULP NOVEL BY LAWRENCE BLOCK, AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 50 YEARS!
On the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. You'll meet
MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with...
MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds...
LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by...
CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda...
and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging!
This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment--and of lines that were never meant to be crossed.
On the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. You'll meet
MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with...
MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds...
LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by...
CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda...
and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging!
This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment--and of lines that were never meant to be crossed.
249 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1962
99 people are currently reading
714 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
768 books2,976 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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November 11, 2013
When I finished the ARC of The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons, I hinted that I'd be willing to read any more Lawrence Block books that needed reviewing. Several days later, this arrived in my mailbox.
Borderline: Four drifters wind up in Juarez and find that some borders, once you cross them, cannot be uncrossed...
Borderline is the story of four drifters whose lives intersect once they reach the border towns of El Paso and Juarez. Marty is a gambler.
Meg is a divorcee looking for thrills. Lily is a hitchhiker looking to start a new life. And Weaver is a cold-blooded serial killer.
So yeah, Borderline is bit of dirty good fun, a lot of it taking place in a Juarez cathouse or points nearby. While there's nothing indicating it in the ARC I'm reading from, I suspect it was one of Block's porn books for the 1960's.
For a short book with a lot of sex in it, there's enough crime in it justify including it in the Hard Case line. Weaver supplies most of it but the other characters aren't angels. There's also a fair amount of suspense. I spent most of the book wondering how Weaver's tale was going to intersect with the rest of the cast, near misses upping the tension accordingly.
Like I said, dirty good fun.
The Burning Fury: A lonely lumberjack drinks in bar, trying to control his dark urges. Then a woman shows up...
This was a quick tale. I was pretty sure how it was going to go but it didn't make the ending any less brutal.
A Fire At Night: An arsonist appreciates the fire he started and watches firefighters try to stop it.
Again, another quickie with an ending I was pretty sure about but the ending was still chilling.
Stag Party Girl: A groom to be is getting death threats from an old flame and hires a PI named London to be his bodyguard. But what will happen when someone winds up dead at his bachelor party?
This one turned out to be a pretty good murder mystery. Ed London had to figure out which of the guys at the bachelor party shot the stripper after she popped out of the cake. It seemed Karen got around...
Lawrence Block kicked off the Hard Case Crime series and his entries never disappoint. Four stars, though this might have more smut than some Hard Case readers are comfortable with.
Borderline: Four drifters wind up in Juarez and find that some borders, once you cross them, cannot be uncrossed...
Borderline is the story of four drifters whose lives intersect once they reach the border towns of El Paso and Juarez. Marty is a gambler.
Meg is a divorcee looking for thrills. Lily is a hitchhiker looking to start a new life. And Weaver is a cold-blooded serial killer.
So yeah, Borderline is bit of dirty good fun, a lot of it taking place in a Juarez cathouse or points nearby. While there's nothing indicating it in the ARC I'm reading from, I suspect it was one of Block's porn books for the 1960's.
For a short book with a lot of sex in it, there's enough crime in it justify including it in the Hard Case line. Weaver supplies most of it but the other characters aren't angels. There's also a fair amount of suspense. I spent most of the book wondering how Weaver's tale was going to intersect with the rest of the cast, near misses upping the tension accordingly.
Like I said, dirty good fun.
The Burning Fury: A lonely lumberjack drinks in bar, trying to control his dark urges. Then a woman shows up...
This was a quick tale. I was pretty sure how it was going to go but it didn't make the ending any less brutal.
A Fire At Night: An arsonist appreciates the fire he started and watches firefighters try to stop it.
Again, another quickie with an ending I was pretty sure about but the ending was still chilling.
Stag Party Girl: A groom to be is getting death threats from an old flame and hires a PI named London to be his bodyguard. But what will happen when someone winds up dead at his bachelor party?
This one turned out to be a pretty good murder mystery. Ed London had to figure out which of the guys at the bachelor party shot the stripper after she popped out of the cake. It seemed Karen got around...
Lawrence Block kicked off the Hard Case Crime series and his entries never disappoint. Four stars, though this might have more smut than some Hard Case readers are comfortable with.
June 14, 2020
”I’m sex-mad, she thought. I’m a thrill girl with her brains between her legs.”
Meg Rector is in Mexico for a quickie divorce and can’t wait to explore all the possibilities of her new found freedom. Juarez, Mexico, is the perfect place to indulge any nefarious predilections she can think of and even some she didn’t know existed. Meg meets Martin Granger, a professional gambler who is coming off a night of winning big. He wants to celebrate, and the horny, long legged, pretty, brunette with an itch that needs scratching is the right companion for a night of debauchery.
There is Lily Daniels, who is a 19 year old hitchhiker who is lured into a live sex show. She has the face of a cherub, but the body of a sex goddess. Men and women are lining up for a chance to boink or doink or shag or diddle away some of her precious essence. Lily is an entrepreneur, and she is smart enough to know that someone somewhere will pay a lot more for her physical allure than what she is earning in tricks in Juarez.
Weaver is a man on the run, and Mexico looks to be his only chance to keep turning his razorblade red. He is an ugly, little man, angry at the world, and determined that everyone will know his name before the cops can take him down. ”It was better to be loathed as a fiend than to be thoroughly ignored, better to be hated than not be known at all. One act of horror had given direction to his life, had elevated him from nobody to somebody.”
All of these people are going to float around each other like inebriated bees until finally one fatal night they all end up at the same latitude and longitude at the same moment, and their futures will take a sharp turn for the worse.
There are a plethora of graphic sexual situations. This story, originally published in 1962, is billed as an erotic crime novel. Well, there is certainly crime, and there is certainly plenty of erotica. Hardcase Crime includes three hardboiled short stories that are also entertaining, gritty reads.
If you are prudish, you better just keep away from Juarez in 1962 and find yourself a good cozy to curl up with, but if you like your novels to have some grit with a side order of brazen, seductive, uninhibited, zip and zing, then Borderline will be the right splash of spirits to warm up your coffee.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
Meg Rector is in Mexico for a quickie divorce and can’t wait to explore all the possibilities of her new found freedom. Juarez, Mexico, is the perfect place to indulge any nefarious predilections she can think of and even some she didn’t know existed. Meg meets Martin Granger, a professional gambler who is coming off a night of winning big. He wants to celebrate, and the horny, long legged, pretty, brunette with an itch that needs scratching is the right companion for a night of debauchery.
There is Lily Daniels, who is a 19 year old hitchhiker who is lured into a live sex show. She has the face of a cherub, but the body of a sex goddess. Men and women are lining up for a chance to boink or doink or shag or diddle away some of her precious essence. Lily is an entrepreneur, and she is smart enough to know that someone somewhere will pay a lot more for her physical allure than what she is earning in tricks in Juarez.
Weaver is a man on the run, and Mexico looks to be his only chance to keep turning his razorblade red. He is an ugly, little man, angry at the world, and determined that everyone will know his name before the cops can take him down. ”It was better to be loathed as a fiend than to be thoroughly ignored, better to be hated than not be known at all. One act of horror had given direction to his life, had elevated him from nobody to somebody.”
All of these people are going to float around each other like inebriated bees until finally one fatal night they all end up at the same latitude and longitude at the same moment, and their futures will take a sharp turn for the worse.
There are a plethora of graphic sexual situations. This story, originally published in 1962, is billed as an erotic crime novel. Well, there is certainly crime, and there is certainly plenty of erotica. Hardcase Crime includes three hardboiled short stories that are also entertaining, gritty reads.
If you are prudish, you better just keep away from Juarez in 1962 and find yourself a good cozy to curl up with, but if you like your novels to have some grit with a side order of brazen, seductive, uninhibited, zip and zing, then Borderline will be the right splash of spirits to warm up your coffee.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
December 6, 2016
Madonna warned us how dangerous it was to keep pushing your love over the borderline….
Lawrence Block books have been the spine of the Hard Case Crime line, and Borderline shows his pulp/porn roots off in all their glory by reprinting one of his old short novels originally titled Border Lust written under a pseudonym along with three short stories from the same era.
In El Paso, Texas tourists looking for sleazy kicks cross the border to Juarez, Mexico. A professional gambler plays poker, a divorcee with a critical case of hot pants is looking for kicks, a down-on-her luck beatnik (a/k/a damn, dirty hippie) winds up working a sex show and a budding serial killer prowls for new victims.
This is a solid little piece of pulp with an edgy nastiness to it, like popping a piece of candy in your mouth and finding out it was actually a hunk of broken glass. It’s also filled with enough graphic sex scenes to make a porn star blush. Add in the some brutal murders and it’s obvious that Block was operating squarely at the intersection of Sex & Crime that was where these kinds of old paperbacks lived. However, talent shines through and Block made all of the characters feel interesting and real including a nice piece of work getting inside in the head of his sicko killer.
It also reminded me a lot of Small Town, a book Block wrote about a group of New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11, in the way that it blends someone looking for kinky thrills stirring up other characters and adding in a serial killer. Pulp in one era is a respected novel by a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers Association in another.
Two of the short ones, The Burning Fury and A Fire At Night, are crime stories that don’t do anything spectacular but again show that Block can probably crank out a good piece of writing in his sleep.
Stag Party Girl is a longer mystery in which private detective Ed London, hired to protect a groom from a jealous ex-girlfriend before his wedding, investigates the murder of a woman killed in shocking fashion right in the middle of the bachelor party. The resolution of the mystery seems far-fetched, and London is a pretty typical PI character for the most part. But there’s something in the smaller moments here when the detective is talking to people that seem like Block was figuring out a style he’d later use for his great Matt Scudder character. It’s almost like London is Matt’s ancient ancestor.
I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it’s definitely of its time and genre. If you like old school pulp and/or are a big fan of Block then it’s worth a read.
Also posted on Kemper's Book Blog.
Lawrence Block books have been the spine of the Hard Case Crime line, and Borderline shows his pulp/porn roots off in all their glory by reprinting one of his old short novels originally titled Border Lust written under a pseudonym along with three short stories from the same era.
In El Paso, Texas tourists looking for sleazy kicks cross the border to Juarez, Mexico. A professional gambler plays poker, a divorcee with a critical case of hot pants is looking for kicks, a down-on-her luck beatnik (a/k/a damn, dirty hippie) winds up working a sex show and a budding serial killer prowls for new victims.
This is a solid little piece of pulp with an edgy nastiness to it, like popping a piece of candy in your mouth and finding out it was actually a hunk of broken glass. It’s also filled with enough graphic sex scenes to make a porn star blush. Add in the some brutal murders and it’s obvious that Block was operating squarely at the intersection of Sex & Crime that was where these kinds of old paperbacks lived. However, talent shines through and Block made all of the characters feel interesting and real including a nice piece of work getting inside in the head of his sicko killer.
It also reminded me a lot of Small Town, a book Block wrote about a group of New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11, in the way that it blends someone looking for kinky thrills stirring up other characters and adding in a serial killer. Pulp in one era is a respected novel by a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers Association in another.
Two of the short ones, The Burning Fury and A Fire At Night, are crime stories that don’t do anything spectacular but again show that Block can probably crank out a good piece of writing in his sleep.
Stag Party Girl is a longer mystery in which private detective Ed London, hired to protect a groom from a jealous ex-girlfriend before his wedding, investigates the murder of a woman killed in shocking fashion right in the middle of the bachelor party. The resolution of the mystery seems far-fetched, and London is a pretty typical PI character for the most part. But there’s something in the smaller moments here when the detective is talking to people that seem like Block was figuring out a style he’d later use for his great Matt Scudder character. It’s almost like London is Matt’s ancient ancestor.
I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it’s definitely of its time and genre. If you like old school pulp and/or are a big fan of Block then it’s worth a read.
Also posted on Kemper's Book Blog.
February 20, 2015
Borderline is a recent release from the folks at Hard Case Crime that brings together a relatively short novel and three short stories by Lawrence Block that were first published in the late 1950s and early '60s, while Block was still cutting his teeth in the crime fiction business. The novel is one that reader would have found on the rotating rack of paperback "pulp" novels down at the local drugstore back in the day, while the short stories originally appeared in the men's magazines of the era.
The crimes at the heart of these stories all basically involve human beings exploiting each other in one way or another, most often sexually. The only real "crime" story here is the last, "Stag Party Girl," in which a young woman jumps out of a cake at a bachelor party and is shot to death. A private detective, who happened to be at the party, must then sort through the other guests to determine who might have killed the poor woman and why.
The short novel, Borderline, takes place on the U.S.-Mexico border where the cities of El Paso and Juarez lie astride the border only yards apart from each other. The story is set in a much earlier day and age when people crossed back and forth across the border pretty much at will, with only an occasional cursory glance from the border patrol.
A number of characters are thrown together in the two cities, including a gambler named Marty, a recent divorcee named Meg, and a young hitchhiker named Lily who has recently arrived from San Francisco and taken up hooking in Juarez as a means of earning enough money to go to New York and live out her dreams. Finally, there's a psycho named Weaver, an ugly man who's never had a friend and who now buys a straight razor and begins to live out the violent fantasies that, until now, he's only entertained in his mind.
There's a lot of sex and violence in the book, reflecting the fact that Block first cut his writing chops by turning out soft-core porn. Meg, in particular, has come out of a sexless marriage and arrives in El Paso hot and ready to experiment with virtually no holds barred. Marty, the cynical gambler, is only too happy to oblige and takes her across the border into Mexico for some experiences she'll never forget. The real borderlines here are mostly psychological, of course, and once the protagonists begin crossing them, they soon discover that sometimes there's no crossing back.
This is a book that will appeal principally to fans of Lawrence Block who, like this one, are only too happy to read virtually anything that the MWA Grand Master ever wrote. But no one should expect that it's on a par with the material he wrote later, beginning with his brilliant Matthew Scudder series. And certainly it will appeal to those who enjoy the pulp novels of this era and continue to seek them out in used bookstores everywhere. All will be grateful to Hard Case Crime for presenting these stories in this fresh edition, complete with one of the classic pulp covers that the publisher does so well.
The crimes at the heart of these stories all basically involve human beings exploiting each other in one way or another, most often sexually. The only real "crime" story here is the last, "Stag Party Girl," in which a young woman jumps out of a cake at a bachelor party and is shot to death. A private detective, who happened to be at the party, must then sort through the other guests to determine who might have killed the poor woman and why.
The short novel, Borderline, takes place on the U.S.-Mexico border where the cities of El Paso and Juarez lie astride the border only yards apart from each other. The story is set in a much earlier day and age when people crossed back and forth across the border pretty much at will, with only an occasional cursory glance from the border patrol.
A number of characters are thrown together in the two cities, including a gambler named Marty, a recent divorcee named Meg, and a young hitchhiker named Lily who has recently arrived from San Francisco and taken up hooking in Juarez as a means of earning enough money to go to New York and live out her dreams. Finally, there's a psycho named Weaver, an ugly man who's never had a friend and who now buys a straight razor and begins to live out the violent fantasies that, until now, he's only entertained in his mind.
There's a lot of sex and violence in the book, reflecting the fact that Block first cut his writing chops by turning out soft-core porn. Meg, in particular, has come out of a sexless marriage and arrives in El Paso hot and ready to experiment with virtually no holds barred. Marty, the cynical gambler, is only too happy to oblige and takes her across the border into Mexico for some experiences she'll never forget. The real borderlines here are mostly psychological, of course, and once the protagonists begin crossing them, they soon discover that sometimes there's no crossing back.
This is a book that will appeal principally to fans of Lawrence Block who, like this one, are only too happy to read virtually anything that the MWA Grand Master ever wrote. But no one should expect that it's on a par with the material he wrote later, beginning with his brilliant Matthew Scudder series. And certainly it will appeal to those who enjoy the pulp novels of this era and continue to seek them out in used bookstores everywhere. All will be grateful to Hard Case Crime for presenting these stories in this fresh edition, complete with one of the classic pulp covers that the publisher does so well.
June 1, 2014
Yesterday I got to snag a free copy of this and get it signed by Lawrence Block. God bless the book industry and BEA. With all the great stuff I got at BEA this was one of a couple of real stand-outs, not because the book was all that great but because I got to meet one of my top five favorite living writers. It wasn't necessarily the highest book on my list of things I picked up to read first, but it happened to be one of the only books in my bag as I stood a long lines, first for the new David Mitchell (maybe a top ten or fifteen favorite living authors?) and then for the new James Ellroy (another of my top five) books, and again getting to meet the author and get a free book in the process. So I started to read it almost right away to pass the time.
Its Hard Case, which for the Lawrence Block seems to mean a book that hasn't seen print in about fifty years or one that is kind of overly violent and kind of explicit sexually. This one brought those two Hard Case Block worlds together into what is a somewhat shocking book by today's standards, but which in 1962 really would have pushed the envelope of what pulpy crime novels were doing (ok, I might be wrong about this, but most of the pulp novels I've read from that era seem heavier on the innuendo than on explicitly saying what is going on, here there is a little euphemism but it's all quite bluntly given to the reader).
Actually, this book is made up of a short novel, maybe a little more than a novella, two very short stories and one long short story.
We'll start with the novel.
Borderline
This takes place in the border towns of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. It follows the trajectories of a professional poker player, a divorcee looking to get some kicks from her life, a sexpot beatnik, a lesbian prostitute and a crazed loner who gets off on enacting his own version of horror comics on women.
What do you think will happen?
Taking part half in the major setting of Roberto Bolano's 2666, we see that the Mexican border town doesn't fair too well for its female citizenry.
The book is entertaining but it was most likely written to shock or titillate people with its depictions of sex, drugs and violence. It reminded me a bit of another Hard Case Block novel from around this same time, A Diet of Treacle , with the Beatnik element and once someone get a bit of mary jane in their system it's just a hop skip and jump away from doing all kinds of depraved things they never would have thought of doing before being 'turned on'.
It's a little too high on a kind of dated shock appeal and less on the story itself for me. But it is very good for what it is (or was). As far as a Hard Case book I'd probably give it four stars, but as a Lawrence Block novel I can't bring myself to give it the same rating as some of the Scudder novels that are Block writing at near the peak of his abilities.
If you read the sensational retro copy on the back of the book you are going to have a pretty good idea of how this whole novel is going to turn out and while it's sort of as much of a foregone conclusion as a Greek or Shakespeare tragedy, Block does create enough tension to keep you wondering how exactly he is going to bring it all together.
The Burning Fury
A short story, which at first surprised me that it was even in the book. I had no idea that I wasn't going to be reading 250 pages about the adventures of drugs, sex and violence on the border. This lack of knowledge kind of created an interesting surprise at how the novel ended, since there was still quite a few pages left in the book.
This story is kind of a throw-away piece from something called “Off Beat Detectives Magazine”. It's about an anti-social lumberjack drinking in a bar and a woman who thinks he is looking a little lonely.
Ladies, don't talk to strangers.
A Fire at Night
Another quick little sociopath character study. This was originally published in a magazine called “Manhunt”. An arsonist watches his beautiful work among the gawkers of destruction.
The twist at the end was of the sort that the one creative writing teacher I had would have crucified me for, but see great writers use cheap tricks at times, too!
Stag Party Girl
A long short story, originally published in something called Man's Magazine (this seems like a very strange name for a magazine, man as in all mankind? The whole gender? Did each man in the early 1960's own their own personal piece of the magazine? Am I just being stupid to think the title is kind of strange?).
A stripper jumps out of a cake at a bachelor party and is shot dead with a .38. The groom to be is arrested for the murder of the stripper, who also happens to have been his occasional mistress. Even though the small group of men, a private investigator and the waiters of the restaurant the stag party is taking place in are all in the room no one knows who shot the girl.
The set up is a little far fetched, and the story plays out in a classic hard-boiled PI manner with pretty buxom women throwing themselves at the gumshoe hero and some overly stylized witty banter. The story is entertaining as a quick detective story, but it doesn't do anything to transcend the genre and reads like someone quickly knocking of a Chandler-esque story. To be fair, this was probably written quickly to make some money and wasn't meant to be genre redefining. Block would do that later in his career. But it is fun, although slightly far fetched, for fans of the hard-boiled detective novel.
Its Hard Case, which for the Lawrence Block seems to mean a book that hasn't seen print in about fifty years or one that is kind of overly violent and kind of explicit sexually. This one brought those two Hard Case Block worlds together into what is a somewhat shocking book by today's standards, but which in 1962 really would have pushed the envelope of what pulpy crime novels were doing (ok, I might be wrong about this, but most of the pulp novels I've read from that era seem heavier on the innuendo than on explicitly saying what is going on, here there is a little euphemism but it's all quite bluntly given to the reader).
Actually, this book is made up of a short novel, maybe a little more than a novella, two very short stories and one long short story.
We'll start with the novel.
Borderline
This takes place in the border towns of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. It follows the trajectories of a professional poker player, a divorcee looking to get some kicks from her life, a sexpot beatnik, a lesbian prostitute and a crazed loner who gets off on enacting his own version of horror comics on women.
What do you think will happen?
Taking part half in the major setting of Roberto Bolano's 2666, we see that the Mexican border town doesn't fair too well for its female citizenry.
The book is entertaining but it was most likely written to shock or titillate people with its depictions of sex, drugs and violence. It reminded me a bit of another Hard Case Block novel from around this same time, A Diet of Treacle , with the Beatnik element and once someone get a bit of mary jane in their system it's just a hop skip and jump away from doing all kinds of depraved things they never would have thought of doing before being 'turned on'.
It's a little too high on a kind of dated shock appeal and less on the story itself for me. But it is very good for what it is (or was). As far as a Hard Case book I'd probably give it four stars, but as a Lawrence Block novel I can't bring myself to give it the same rating as some of the Scudder novels that are Block writing at near the peak of his abilities.
If you read the sensational retro copy on the back of the book you are going to have a pretty good idea of how this whole novel is going to turn out and while it's sort of as much of a foregone conclusion as a Greek or Shakespeare tragedy, Block does create enough tension to keep you wondering how exactly he is going to bring it all together.
The Burning Fury
A short story, which at first surprised me that it was even in the book. I had no idea that I wasn't going to be reading 250 pages about the adventures of drugs, sex and violence on the border. This lack of knowledge kind of created an interesting surprise at how the novel ended, since there was still quite a few pages left in the book.
This story is kind of a throw-away piece from something called “Off Beat Detectives Magazine”. It's about an anti-social lumberjack drinking in a bar and a woman who thinks he is looking a little lonely.
Ladies, don't talk to strangers.
A Fire at Night
Another quick little sociopath character study. This was originally published in a magazine called “Manhunt”. An arsonist watches his beautiful work among the gawkers of destruction.
The twist at the end was of the sort that the one creative writing teacher I had would have crucified me for, but see great writers use cheap tricks at times, too!
Stag Party Girl
A long short story, originally published in something called Man's Magazine (this seems like a very strange name for a magazine, man as in all mankind? The whole gender? Did each man in the early 1960's own their own personal piece of the magazine? Am I just being stupid to think the title is kind of strange?).
A stripper jumps out of a cake at a bachelor party and is shot dead with a .38. The groom to be is arrested for the murder of the stripper, who also happens to have been his occasional mistress. Even though the small group of men, a private investigator and the waiters of the restaurant the stag party is taking place in are all in the room no one knows who shot the girl.
The set up is a little far fetched, and the story plays out in a classic hard-boiled PI manner with pretty buxom women throwing themselves at the gumshoe hero and some overly stylized witty banter. The story is entertaining as a quick detective story, but it doesn't do anything to transcend the genre and reads like someone quickly knocking of a Chandler-esque story. To be fair, this was probably written quickly to make some money and wasn't meant to be genre redefining. Block would do that later in his career. But it is fun, although slightly far fetched, for fans of the hard-boiled detective novel.
June 24, 2014
What a nasty piece of work this turned out to be living as it does at the seedy intersection of pulp and pornography, violence and depravity. I thought I was a big girl and could handle stepping over the borderline into such dark corners, but this one shook me up quite a bit and left me feeling a bit sick and dirty. The only thing I can compare it to is how I felt after watching Requiem for a Dream.
I blithely walked into this one expecting a lighter, fluffier piece of pulp fiction -- an exaggerated "put your lips together and blow" Hollywood-style noir. Instead I got closer to a Larry Flynt fantasy than I ever wanted to get in this life. Kemper perfectly describes the experience this way:
This is a solid little piece of pulp with an edgy nastiness to it, like popping a piece of candy in your mouth and finding out it was actually a hunk of broken glass.Yup. And I can still taste the blood.
So giving this a star rating is tough. I didn't enjoy it and found most of the story and the characters vile and despicable. However, the fact that I was so unsettled and left feeling so out of sorts is a testament to Block's ability as a writer. I'm really, really happy he found another way to make his living as a novelist however.
April 22, 2024
Written over 50 years ago, this set comprises a short novel (the title piece), two short stories, and a novella. The main story is a hard-boiled noir yarn involving four key players: a professional gambler, a divorcee seeking thrills and excitement, a party girl come drifter, and a nasty serial killer. The action takes place on the U.S./Mexico border, alternating between the cities of El Paso and Juarez. The dialogue is sparse and sharp, and the action is uncompromising and raw as their lives intersect, culminating in a brutal conclusion. This isn’t a novel for the prudish or feint hearted, but I loved it!
The two short stories are entertaining enough, but I preferred the whodunit novella. Like the longer tale, the prose is excellently crafted, and the plot intriguing enough to keep you locked in.
Anyone familiar with the author’s later work will know that LB can string a good sentence together and is an expert at drawing his audience into an enthralling narrative. This compendium of early offerings shows that he had talent to spare from his 20’s. It’s amazing how much quality work he’s produced in his long, industrious writing career.
The two short stories are entertaining enough, but I preferred the whodunit novella. Like the longer tale, the prose is excellently crafted, and the plot intriguing enough to keep you locked in.
Anyone familiar with the author’s later work will know that LB can string a good sentence together and is an expert at drawing his audience into an enthralling narrative. This compendium of early offerings shows that he had talent to spare from his 20’s. It’s amazing how much quality work he’s produced in his long, industrious writing career.
September 30, 2014
I wonder if Juarez and El Paso were inspirations for George Lucas when he created the town of Mos Eisley as the two border towns are both wretched hives of scum and villainy.
Seeing the public eye for the first time in over fifty years, and released through renowned publisher Hard Case Crime, Borderline (originally published as Borderlust) is crammed with sex and violence. Block’s dirty and dangerous drama fits well within the publisher's vision of hard-hitting stories and sleazy players.
The main story, Borderline, shifts perspective among five less than admirable characters: a successful gambler, a rich divorcee looking for a good time, a down on her luck drifter, a sex-crazed lesbian and a serial killer. While the story itself is dripping with sexual content, the real fun comes in guessing when and where these five will eventually intersect with one another.
Alongside Borderline, there are three additional short stories that make up the rest of the content. While two of the three stories only share a few dozen pages, the final story is about seventy pages in length and I liked that one the best of the bunch - a classic murder mystery that had me guessing until the end.
Since its launch a few years back, Block has become a staple of the Hard Case Crime brand and with the positive reception for Borderline, Block was inspired to pen another standalone crime novel that publisher will release in late 2015 titled, The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes. Can’t wait!
Also posted @ Every Read Thing.
Seeing the public eye for the first time in over fifty years, and released through renowned publisher Hard Case Crime, Borderline (originally published as Borderlust) is crammed with sex and violence. Block’s dirty and dangerous drama fits well within the publisher's vision of hard-hitting stories and sleazy players.
The main story, Borderline, shifts perspective among five less than admirable characters: a successful gambler, a rich divorcee looking for a good time, a down on her luck drifter, a sex-crazed lesbian and a serial killer. While the story itself is dripping with sexual content, the real fun comes in guessing when and where these five will eventually intersect with one another.
Alongside Borderline, there are three additional short stories that make up the rest of the content. While two of the three stories only share a few dozen pages, the final story is about seventy pages in length and I liked that one the best of the bunch - a classic murder mystery that had me guessing until the end.
Since its launch a few years back, Block has become a staple of the Hard Case Crime brand and with the positive reception for Borderline, Block was inspired to pen another standalone crime novel that publisher will release in late 2015 titled, The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes. Can’t wait!
Also posted @ Every Read Thing.
May 22, 2015
A diverse band of characters collide in a bloody fury that, while expected, is still satisfying. With a character like Weaver, a true degenerate and dangerous member of society, his life consumed by lust and driven by murderous thoughts, BORDERLINE was always going to end up on the darker side of sleaze pulp. The other characters all have a penchant for the illegal things in life making them easy targets to fall within Weavers cross-hairs.
Readers my reviews will know I'm a fan of Orrie Hitt, and BORDERLINE will instantly appeal to others with similar tastes. While the sleaze pulp element is prevalent, it doesn't overshadow the characters, if anything it's a critical component to their make-up.
Each of the separate situations the characters find themselves are as interesting as it is unique to their predicament and what led them to the border in the first place. I found this subtle yet highly effective back-story complimentary to the core plot.
The short stories, I can take or leave; THE BURNING FURY was a quick firecracker of violence while A FIRE A NIGHT told the brief tale of a murder cover-up by arson. THE STAG PARTY GIRL was the longest piece of short fiction (clocking in at 50+ pages) and read like a Mike Hammer story. The murder mystery at a bucks show was good and the characters had depth. A pulp told at a cracking pace.
http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Readers my reviews will know I'm a fan of Orrie Hitt, and BORDERLINE will instantly appeal to others with similar tastes. While the sleaze pulp element is prevalent, it doesn't overshadow the characters, if anything it's a critical component to their make-up.
Each of the separate situations the characters find themselves are as interesting as it is unique to their predicament and what led them to the border in the first place. I found this subtle yet highly effective back-story complimentary to the core plot.
The short stories, I can take or leave; THE BURNING FURY was a quick firecracker of violence while A FIRE A NIGHT told the brief tale of a murder cover-up by arson. THE STAG PARTY GIRL was the longest piece of short fiction (clocking in at 50+ pages) and read like a Mike Hammer story. The murder mystery at a bucks show was good and the characters had depth. A pulp told at a cracking pace.
http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
May 7, 2023
Reading this on a crowded plane, I reduced the kindle font size so that my neighbors couldn't see that I was reading smut. Meg is a recent divorcee with an itch to scratch. Lilly-O is a hippie chippie out for kicks. In addition to the girl-on-girl action, an ugly gink named Weaver provides some torture porn. A poker stud named Marty is the hero of the story. The four stories converge unremarkably. Block writes agreeably but is too horny for me.
August 8, 2019
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 76 (of 250)
Pulp Fiction taken to the edge, if that's what you're looking for. I do like Pulp Fiction, but this one is hard to stomach.
HOOK - 4 stars: "Marty let up on the gas about fifty yards from the Customs shed....He rolled down his window and let his face relax into an automatic smile...Customs:Anything to declare?...There's 2 cases of tequila in the trunk and a hundred pounds of marijuana under the back seat. That's about it...Customs:Well, hell just so you ain't bringing back a dose or nothing. Go on." And we're off and running into the pits of the very worst sort of folks working this borderline. THIS is the way to start a pulp fiction novel, no weather reports here, right to the drugs, and shortly to the sex.
PACE -3: Things seem to slow down a bit between the highlights: drugs, sex, drugs, sex. But no, it's just that the highlights are blistering making everything in between (anyone talking about anything other that drugs and sex) irrelevant.
PLOT -3: A mad killer runs amuck amid people only trying to score their next high from sex and booze and drugs. The violence is sickening, just not for me. But Block never backs down, I'll give him that.
CHARACTERS - 4: Unforgettable: this is one sick cast. From the back cover: MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging. Then there is Pancho, doing live sex shows with his sister, and Ringo, doing Pancho every now and then...and more. This is a great portrait of WEAVER - "Now, walking through El Paso by night, he was at least a somebody for once....He had done something...The something was horrible..and they had put his picture in the newspapers...They called him Dracula, and they called him the Cannibal Killer, but now, for the first time, they knew who he was." The murder scenes are horrific, the sex scenes are XXX. Block delivers the goods, no holds barred. For what this is, it's pure, ugly pulp fiction.
ATMOSPHERE/PLACE-3: "He [Marty] remembered the way she had behaved at Delia's...a pig in rutting season...I'm a pig, too. One pig doesn't have to like another pig just because they've been eating sops together out of the same trough." This is a twisted, sick world...just so you know what you're getting in to.
SUMMARY - Seriously, this is off-the -charts ugly. It's hard to believe that in 1958 this was even publishable. If I remember correctly, Joyce's "Ulysses" was still barred from publication because it was considered porn. Still, I gotta hand it to Block. He delivers what other authors didn't dare to write. My overall rating is 3.4 because Block goes for broke and pushes Pulp Fiction to the very edge.
BOOK 76 (of 250)
Pulp Fiction taken to the edge, if that's what you're looking for. I do like Pulp Fiction, but this one is hard to stomach.
HOOK - 4 stars: "Marty let up on the gas about fifty yards from the Customs shed....He rolled down his window and let his face relax into an automatic smile...Customs:Anything to declare?...There's 2 cases of tequila in the trunk and a hundred pounds of marijuana under the back seat. That's about it...Customs:Well, hell just so you ain't bringing back a dose or nothing. Go on." And we're off and running into the pits of the very worst sort of folks working this borderline. THIS is the way to start a pulp fiction novel, no weather reports here, right to the drugs, and shortly to the sex.
PACE -3: Things seem to slow down a bit between the highlights: drugs, sex, drugs, sex. But no, it's just that the highlights are blistering making everything in between (anyone talking about anything other that drugs and sex) irrelevant.
PLOT -3: A mad killer runs amuck amid people only trying to score their next high from sex and booze and drugs. The violence is sickening, just not for me. But Block never backs down, I'll give him that.
CHARACTERS - 4: Unforgettable: this is one sick cast. From the back cover: MARTY - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with MEG - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds LILY - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by CASSIE - the redhead with her own private agenda and WEAVER - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging. Then there is Pancho, doing live sex shows with his sister, and Ringo, doing Pancho every now and then...and more. This is a great portrait of WEAVER - "Now, walking through El Paso by night, he was at least a somebody for once....He had done something...The something was horrible..and they had put his picture in the newspapers...They called him Dracula, and they called him the Cannibal Killer, but now, for the first time, they knew who he was." The murder scenes are horrific, the sex scenes are XXX. Block delivers the goods, no holds barred. For what this is, it's pure, ugly pulp fiction.
ATMOSPHERE/PLACE-3: "He [Marty] remembered the way she had behaved at Delia's...a pig in rutting season...I'm a pig, too. One pig doesn't have to like another pig just because they've been eating sops together out of the same trough." This is a twisted, sick world...just so you know what you're getting in to.
SUMMARY - Seriously, this is off-the -charts ugly. It's hard to believe that in 1958 this was even publishable. If I remember correctly, Joyce's "Ulysses" was still barred from publication because it was considered porn. Still, I gotta hand it to Block. He delivers what other authors didn't dare to write. My overall rating is 3.4 because Block goes for broke and pushes Pulp Fiction to the very edge.
May 24, 2014
Back in 1961 "BORDER LUST" an adult sleaze paperback book was published by Nightstand Books as by Don Holliday and sold for what twenty five or thirty five cents ? Well now the good folks at Hard Case Crime in conjunction with Titan Books UK have given us the same book in a hard cover format for us to keep through the ages. I am sure that ratty old stained paperback is most likely hard to find in reasonable condition and will cost at least ten bucks.
The cover art for the hardcover by Cover artist Michael Koelsch is much more pleasing than the paperback which pictures a girl cowering next to a dresser while an evil looking man is approaching her holding a straight razor.
The book is quite dated and for the most part isn't even really much of a fun retro read. But it is Mr. Block near the beginning of his illustrious career and so worth at least a glance or two.
The cover art for the hardcover by Cover artist Michael Koelsch is much more pleasing than the paperback which pictures a girl cowering next to a dresser while an evil looking man is approaching her holding a straight razor.
The book is quite dated and for the most part isn't even really much of a fun retro read. But it is Mr. Block near the beginning of his illustrious career and so worth at least a glance or two.
May 30, 2014
Lawrence Block is a master story teller,the hard boiled crime genre is his playground. However, I would suggest that not all of one's oeuvre, which here spans decades, is what one would wish to be remembered for. "Borderline" is one of those better forgotten efforts. The writing, as usual, is excellent but the sexual subject matter is pretty tacky, clinical but not erotic. These tales may be of an age, and maybe academically interesting for that fact, but the book is not one I would recommend for its entertainment value. This is the only Hard Case book that I am debating whether to retain for my collection. Potential readers beware, you are in for a huge amount of misogyny and just generally offensive material.
March 21, 2020
This novel definitely needs a snowflake warning. It is not for the PC crowd, nor the squeamish. I also feel that regular readers of Hard Case Crime novels, who Charles Ardai has repeatedly assured that they would never publish books with rape scenes, should be warned that the book contains a brutal and very graphic rape scene. He's also stated he would never publish a book in the public domain. But at least Larry Block will be able to collect royalties for having it published under his real name. He deserves it since it's very likely he received little or no money the first time it was published. Especially if it was work for hire. It's a well-written and gripping novel.
This is one of those gems you occasionally come across from publishers such as Beacon, Midwood, Nightstand, Beside, etc. that turn out to be written by great writers such as Block, Westlake and Evan Hunter. This book originally appeared as Border Lust (1961) by Don Holliday.
This is one of those gems you occasionally come across from publishers such as Beacon, Midwood, Nightstand, Beside, etc. that turn out to be written by great writers such as Block, Westlake and Evan Hunter. This book originally appeared as Border Lust (1961) by Don Holliday.
January 13, 2020
This story read like those old movies where people smoke pot and then go insane. It might as well have been called "The Evils of Sin!!!!!". Like to gamble? You will end up alone and miserable. Like monster movies and comic books? You will become a serial killer. Interested in experimenting in some gay sex? Awful things await you. Despite that, this was a decent (and very bleak) little crime novel.
The three stories that accompany the main story are all serviceable pulpy crime tales.
The three stories that accompany the main story are all serviceable pulpy crime tales.
May 22, 2014
(Content Note: Jesus, where to even start)
It was an incredibly surreal experience reading this along An Untamed State, which is a realistic depiction of the toll sexual assault takes on a woman, and the sheer horror of it.
Meanwhile, Borderline is here to titillate, and it's going to do it in the most lurid, vile ways. Lawrence Block is a good writer for sure, but by the third graphic rape scene focussing on details like the victim's "perky nipples," I was getting a little bored of it all.
The story goes along at a fast clip at least, with five strangers coming together in Juarez and El Paso. Block can write a hell of a sex scene when he's not lingering over a graphic assault, and his characters are all delightfully horrible in their own ways. Still, it's a bit of soft-core porn meant to entertain the men of the 1960s, so the plot is pretty cardboard.
The three short stories at the end are decent, in the standard misogynist vein already established. It's a little frightening to think of a world in which this was common entertainment, but at least Block had the decency to be able to string a good sentence together.
So, 3 stars mostly for quality of writing, and for writing at least one lesbian who wasn't a complete jerk. Not sure I'd really recommend it though - there's better pulps out there that don't focus so heavily on abusing women for entertainment purposes.
It was an incredibly surreal experience reading this along An Untamed State, which is a realistic depiction of the toll sexual assault takes on a woman, and the sheer horror of it.
Meanwhile, Borderline is here to titillate, and it's going to do it in the most lurid, vile ways. Lawrence Block is a good writer for sure, but by the third graphic rape scene focussing on details like the victim's "perky nipples," I was getting a little bored of it all.
The story goes along at a fast clip at least, with five strangers coming together in Juarez and El Paso. Block can write a hell of a sex scene when he's not lingering over a graphic assault, and his characters are all delightfully horrible in their own ways. Still, it's a bit of soft-core porn meant to entertain the men of the 1960s, so the plot is pretty cardboard.
The three short stories at the end are decent, in the standard misogynist vein already established. It's a little frightening to think of a world in which this was common entertainment, but at least Block had the decency to be able to string a good sentence together.
So, 3 stars mostly for quality of writing, and for writing at least one lesbian who wasn't a complete jerk. Not sure I'd really recommend it though - there's better pulps out there that don't focus so heavily on abusing women for entertainment purposes.
January 18, 2015
Not the typical Lawrence Block novel! More porn than mystery.
May 26, 2024
Truly terrible.
December 11, 2016
I read this one expecting a good fun retro read (see previous Block/Hard Case volumes Lucky at Cards, Killing Castro, etc.) and to contrast with the author's newer stories like Resume Speed (one of the best things Block has ever wrote, in my opinion). So, for starters, Borderline is really Border Lust, a short sleaze-crime novel, bookended by three shorter works to fill out the volume.
And Border Lust isn't very good; it's got an interesting cast (gambler, divorcee, beatnik/junkie, and psycho with a straightrazor), and the setup is cool, watching them cross paths while bouncing between El Paso and Juarez. But it ends up a raw, rather graphic story that deserves a trigger warning, where the psycho starts brutalizing women in lurid, nasty ways. I may have been more forgiving of that content when it's in another genre---a moody literary drama, or maybe horror---but since this was originally sold as shocking titillation, the sexual violence made it extra repulsive.
The shorter works weren't bad but were also a bit misogynistic, and the best was a private eye caper we've already seen a hundred times before. Not a fun retro read at all, and very dated, all shock and no story. Easily my least favorite Hard Case Crime, and not one I'd recommend---especially if you have a soft heart or queasy stomach. (Full review on my blog.)
And Border Lust isn't very good; it's got an interesting cast (gambler, divorcee, beatnik/junkie, and psycho with a straightrazor), and the setup is cool, watching them cross paths while bouncing between El Paso and Juarez. But it ends up a raw, rather graphic story that deserves a trigger warning, where the psycho starts brutalizing women in lurid, nasty ways. I may have been more forgiving of that content when it's in another genre---a moody literary drama, or maybe horror---but since this was originally sold as shocking titillation, the sexual violence made it extra repulsive.
The shorter works weren't bad but were also a bit misogynistic, and the best was a private eye caper we've already seen a hundred times before. Not a fun retro read at all, and very dated, all shock and no story. Easily my least favorite Hard Case Crime, and not one I'd recommend---especially if you have a soft heart or queasy stomach. (Full review on my blog.)
January 10, 2020
This is hardboiled noir that is more thiller than detective story. It’s not really my thing, I like them more gum-shoe than this but it was still solid, and the 3 short stories were good, the last one was very good. For those new to pulp-fiction, the moral of the story is always don’t stray too far into the wild side, or I suppose moderation in all things. Unfortunately for our protagonists, they where jones’n for thrills despite the heat increasing all around them; like frogs slowly boiled from lukewarm water.
Marty: “You could get all tied up, just living the same life every day. You could be building a box around yourself without realizing it, and all at once you were in the box and somebody was puttying up the air holes and pretty soon you couldn’t breathe anymore. When that started to happen you had to kick like hell until the box fell apart.” Or “He felt cleaner now, but some of the griminess seemed to have lodged itself beneath his skin. As though the filth were a part of him, he thought. As though he’d absorbed it and it was a permanent acquisition.
Meg: “But now she was more concerned with a different sort of excitement. The show was driving her mad, not because she needed a man’s embrace but because it was so exotic, so forbidden. There was a genuinely evil aspect to it, and this sense of evil was driving her wild.”
Lily & Cassie: “Just wait,” Cassie was saying now, her lips close to Lily’s ear. “Just wait. I’m going to show you everything, Lily. Everything there is to know. Baby, you’ll dig it. I know you will.” “Maybe.” “And you’re blonde all the way, aren’t you? Hell, don’t answer, baby. Like I saw it myself.” “Yeah.” “Well, I’m a redhead all the way. You like?” “Sure, Cassie.” Cassie stopped, turned Lily around. “Come on,” she said. “I’m like so crazy for it I can’t stand it. Give me a kiss, Lily.” “Here in the street?” “Nobody’s looking.” “Well, sure.”
Weaver: “The something was a horrible thing, but he had done it, and they had put his picture in the newspapers and had broadcast his name over the radio. They called him Dracula, and they called him the Cannibal Killer, but now, for the first time, they knew who he was. Better to be loathed as a fiend than to be thoroughly ignored, better to be hated than not to be known at all. One act of horror had given direction to his life, had elevated him from nobody to somebody.”
So when does “thrill seeking” become evil? How do you know when you’ve gone too far? Ask the frogs.
Marty: “You could get all tied up, just living the same life every day. You could be building a box around yourself without realizing it, and all at once you were in the box and somebody was puttying up the air holes and pretty soon you couldn’t breathe anymore. When that started to happen you had to kick like hell until the box fell apart.” Or “He felt cleaner now, but some of the griminess seemed to have lodged itself beneath his skin. As though the filth were a part of him, he thought. As though he’d absorbed it and it was a permanent acquisition.
Meg: “But now she was more concerned with a different sort of excitement. The show was driving her mad, not because she needed a man’s embrace but because it was so exotic, so forbidden. There was a genuinely evil aspect to it, and this sense of evil was driving her wild.”
Lily & Cassie: “Just wait,” Cassie was saying now, her lips close to Lily’s ear. “Just wait. I’m going to show you everything, Lily. Everything there is to know. Baby, you’ll dig it. I know you will.” “Maybe.” “And you’re blonde all the way, aren’t you? Hell, don’t answer, baby. Like I saw it myself.” “Yeah.” “Well, I’m a redhead all the way. You like?” “Sure, Cassie.” Cassie stopped, turned Lily around. “Come on,” she said. “I’m like so crazy for it I can’t stand it. Give me a kiss, Lily.” “Here in the street?” “Nobody’s looking.” “Well, sure.”
Weaver: “The something was a horrible thing, but he had done it, and they had put his picture in the newspapers and had broadcast his name over the radio. They called him Dracula, and they called him the Cannibal Killer, but now, for the first time, they knew who he was. Better to be loathed as a fiend than to be thoroughly ignored, better to be hated than not to be known at all. One act of horror had given direction to his life, had elevated him from nobody to somebody.”
So when does “thrill seeking” become evil? How do you know when you’ve gone too far? Ask the frogs.
October 22, 2025
What quality sleaze!!
Feels like I was sat at the back of a Golden Age Times Square nudie booth, feeding coins into it, curtain pulling back to reveal Lawrence Block himself, who, while breathing heavily, told me about sex and violence and sexy violence.
Now listen it’s pulp and all, but the breast descriptions were bonkers. Every damn paragraph, they were big or huge or flat, and Block preferred them in the middle range and cast aspersions on the women to whom those over- or undersized breasts were attached. The man is a veritable Tittilocks.
I mean also, weirdly, as sleazy as it was, it seemed to rush past its most lurid details. A woman gets slashed then we jump cut and several more mutilations had occurred but we’re leaving the scene now. A sex worker sleeps with one man, jump cut and she’s slept with ten. Am I suggesting we got more of this and in more detail? I mean it’s basically written torture porn-slash-regular porn—so, yeah.
Dime store de Sade strikes again!!
Feels like I was sat at the back of a Golden Age Times Square nudie booth, feeding coins into it, curtain pulling back to reveal Lawrence Block himself, who, while breathing heavily, told me about sex and violence and sexy violence.
Now listen it’s pulp and all, but the breast descriptions were bonkers. Every damn paragraph, they were big or huge or flat, and Block preferred them in the middle range and cast aspersions on the women to whom those over- or undersized breasts were attached. The man is a veritable Tittilocks.
I mean also, weirdly, as sleazy as it was, it seemed to rush past its most lurid details. A woman gets slashed then we jump cut and several more mutilations had occurred but we’re leaving the scene now. A sex worker sleeps with one man, jump cut and she’s slept with ten. Am I suggesting we got more of this and in more detail? I mean it’s basically written torture porn-slash-regular porn—so, yeah.
Dime store de Sade strikes again!!
October 9, 2017
A novel set in El Paso and Juarez around 1960, featuring a divorcee, a gambler, a beat generation girl willing to sell sexual favours and a violent murderer. A lot of sex and violence leading to an abrupt ending. Three short stories also included in this edition.
August 9, 2021
I found this book at an antique mall and the cover just grabbed me. I had never read anything by Lawrence Block or had ever read a hard crime novel before but this looked like the best place to start.
The story takes place in various spots in and around Mexico and Texas. There are 4 main characters with a few secondary characters in the background. Each character is well developed but not with much detail. I quickly learned that Lawrence can say a lot in a few words which I really liked, especially with this type of read. You quickly find yourself hoping for the best for the characters that deserve that fate and hoping for the worse for the characters that deserve that fate. While the book goes back and forth from one character to another, sometimes one paragraph after the other, you're never confused on who is telling their story.
This is just a super sexy, fast paced, quick read thriller of a crime novel with characters that I'll probably think about for a few days and then forget. Once you read this book, you'll understand that last line really well.
The story takes place in various spots in and around Mexico and Texas. There are 4 main characters with a few secondary characters in the background. Each character is well developed but not with much detail. I quickly learned that Lawrence can say a lot in a few words which I really liked, especially with this type of read. You quickly find yourself hoping for the best for the characters that deserve that fate and hoping for the worse for the characters that deserve that fate. While the book goes back and forth from one character to another, sometimes one paragraph after the other, you're never confused on who is telling their story.
This is just a super sexy, fast paced, quick read thriller of a crime novel with characters that I'll probably think about for a few days and then forget. Once you read this book, you'll understand that last line really well.
July 25, 2016
Typical Block. Sexy, violent, graphic. Sharp and vivid prose. Hard boiled.
February 21, 2017
Can now remember why I quit reading him. Too much romance; too slow pace!
April 7, 2017
I'm a big fan of Block's Matt Scudder books so was interested to read some of his earlier work. This is a collection of one short novel and 3 short stories. All 4 are very much in the pulp style and the novel in particular is extremely saucy (to the extent that it gets in the way of the story a little). I enjoyed all of them though, especially the final story about a PI investigating a murder at a stag party
April 18, 2024
This book was absolute filth. If zero stars was an option it would be more fitting.
March 25, 2020
I liked the style n vibe of the writin. Makes u crave for more.
I look forward to read more works by this author.
I look forward to read more works by this author.
January 20, 2015
Hard Case Crime has unearthed another lost early Lawrence Block novel. Borderline follows a quartet of self-destructive characters crisscrossing the border between El Paso and Juarez over a 3-day period. In 1962, there was virtually no border security, and the twin cities are depicted as a hot bed of drugs, gambling, and deviant sex of every imaginable variety. There is Lily, a down-on-her-luck hippie who turns to prostitution; Marty, a professional gambler, lucky with cards and women; Meg, a rich bored divorcee looking for a weekend of debauchery; and Weaver, a newly minted serial killer on the run from the law.
There really is not much plot, as the characters meander back and forth among strip clubs, seedy hotels, brothels, and underground poker games. Their lives intersect in a few interesting and surprising ways, but mostly the value here is an early example of Block’s ability to juggle multiple viewpoints and infuse scenes with a sense of quiet increasing desperation. Weaver is his earliest take on the serial killer. Weaver spends most of the story in full-on over-the-top bloodlust, and his scenes are shockingly violent and graphic for the time. In later novels, particularly the Scudder series, Block would learn to use this sort of violence more sparingly and effectively.
There is a high quotient of sex scenes, less euphemistic and more detailed than his other 1960-64 novels such as April North, Carla, and Johnny Gigolo. I wonder if the censor was taking a week off when this novel was submitted. The book was originally published as Border Lust under the nom de plume Don Holliday in 1962 (Block used the same pseudonym at least one other time on Circle of Sinners, a novel he acknowledged in Liar’s Bible, but to date never reissued).
Also included are three early magazine short stories, all reprints from the collection One Night Stands and Lost Weekends. The best one is “Stag Party Girl”, one of a series of stories Block wrote about private detective Ed London, a very clear progenitor of Matthew Scudder.
There really is not much plot, as the characters meander back and forth among strip clubs, seedy hotels, brothels, and underground poker games. Their lives intersect in a few interesting and surprising ways, but mostly the value here is an early example of Block’s ability to juggle multiple viewpoints and infuse scenes with a sense of quiet increasing desperation. Weaver is his earliest take on the serial killer. Weaver spends most of the story in full-on over-the-top bloodlust, and his scenes are shockingly violent and graphic for the time. In later novels, particularly the Scudder series, Block would learn to use this sort of violence more sparingly and effectively.
There is a high quotient of sex scenes, less euphemistic and more detailed than his other 1960-64 novels such as April North, Carla, and Johnny Gigolo. I wonder if the censor was taking a week off when this novel was submitted. The book was originally published as Border Lust under the nom de plume Don Holliday in 1962 (Block used the same pseudonym at least one other time on Circle of Sinners, a novel he acknowledged in Liar’s Bible, but to date never reissued).
Also included are three early magazine short stories, all reprints from the collection One Night Stands and Lost Weekends. The best one is “Stag Party Girl”, one of a series of stories Block wrote about private detective Ed London, a very clear progenitor of Matthew Scudder.
May 4, 2015
I’d like to recommend this book to all those people who are constantly harping about how much society has gone downhill these days, and how books and television and music are so much more violent and sexual (You know who I’m speaking about Old Man Thornhill, sitting there in front of the Five and Dime general store, waving your cane and yelling at the kids to stay off the grass. Playing checkers and yammering on about the good old days.).
The stories in Borderline were written by Lawrence Block (using a pseudonym) over fifty years ago for the lurid pulp magazines that spun in revolving metal magazine racks inside drugstores and lunch counters.
On a purely historical level, it is interesting to see the tales these magazines with their cover illustrations of half-naked and usually bound women in distress contained. There is moral ambiguity, shady characters making devastatingly bad decisions, high degrees of wet sex and crushing violence. But what’s missing are interesting characters, a focus on pacing, and memorable plots. This makes sense as a good number of these tales were written by now established authors at the beginning of their careers.
Unfortunately, the stories in Borderline show none of the nuance, driving action, and unforgettable characters of Block’s excellent Matthew Scudder detective series. These crass stories are meant to bludgeon your skull with overt debauchery and the degenerate actions of morally bankrupt miscreants. Like a young boy farting at the dinner table to see the shocked expressions on his grandparent’s faces, Block seems to be piling on layer after layer of shocking deeds and acts of cruelty simply to get a reaction. With all the subtly of a professional wrestling match, or the description a woman’s derriere by an eleven year old boy, these stories are numbing and boring in their overblown craziness and coarse attempts to gross out the reader.
While there are smart and humorous word choices and flashes of Block’s clever writing, overall this book is a dud.
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