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Strange Embrace
When his leading lady winds up dead, a Broadway producer goes searching for a different kind of hit
In just a few hours, Johnny Lane’s newest Broadway creation begins previews, and he cannot find his leading lady. Elaine is a nobody, but his show A Touch of Squalor will make her a star, and Johnny won’t let her miss it. There are only a few miles between his penthouse and Alphabet City, but the short cab ride to Elaine’s apartment is enough to carry this producer into New York’s hellish depths. On the top floor of a decrepit tenement, he finds the would-be diva dead on her bed, her throat slashed by a straight razor. Before he can debut his production, Johnny will avenge his murdered star. In the dark alleys of Alphabet City, he will blaze a searchlight brighter than any marquee on the Great White Way. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
In just a few hours, Johnny Lane’s newest Broadway creation begins previews, and he cannot find his leading lady. Elaine is a nobody, but his show A Touch of Squalor will make her a star, and Johnny won’t let her miss it. There are only a few miles between his penthouse and Alphabet City, but the short cab ride to Elaine’s apartment is enough to carry this producer into New York’s hellish depths. On the top floor of a decrepit tenement, he finds the would-be diva dead on her bed, her throat slashed by a straight razor. Before he can debut his production, Johnny will avenge his murdered star. In the dark alleys of Alphabet City, he will blaze a searchlight brighter than any marquee on the Great White Way. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
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First published January 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 12, 2017
"Strange Embrace" by Lawrence Block...Lawrence Block is a master at writing mystery, Strange Embrace is one of those stories that keeps you turning pages to find out "who dunnit"! Apparently this was a story written as a tie in to a TV series, however, remembering this was written in the 1950's, refreshed to current times, it would have no problem competing with current mystery authors!
May 10, 2017
Not one of his best; the author doesn't even remember writing it. lol
February 18, 2023
Written in 1963 so despite the boasts on forensic science advancements, these were early days. A nice noir set in NYC.
July 15, 2017
Strange Embrace is a 1962 novel by Lawrence Block, originally published under a pseudonym, Ben Christopher. Block explains that it was published by Beacon and Beacon was a particularly chessy publishing house of softcore stuff so no one put their real names on Beacon books at that time.It was originally intended as a tie-in to a tv series, Johnny Midnight, starring Edmund O’Brien as a theatrical producer with a wisecracking Japanese butler, Ito. The series ran for a full season of 39 episodes, but was then not renewed. With the name of the title character changed to Johnny Lane, the book was off and running. Although it is packaged by Hard Case Crime with 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is the better of the two novels and the more complete novel. What the two works have in common is a connection to the East Village of Manhattan in 1962 where the hippies, beatniks, and other purveyors of alternative lifestyles gathered and engaged in drugs, orgies, and other behavior, sometimes violence like murder, at least in novels portraying the alternative generation. But, the connection between the two novels doesn’t go much further than that. Unlike 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is a solid pulp whodunit mystery novel that is focused more so on the mystery of who is doing the killings than on the East Village itself.
September 12, 2014
Strange Embrace exemplifies why I like Lawrence Block so much. This “lost” novel from 1962 was only supposed to be a second-rate mystery tie-in to a subpar television show. However, under Block’s hand, even this basically throwaway effort turns into a tight narrative with a lot of humor and some great vintage noir writing.
Block chose to use a pseudonym because tie-in novels were viewed as second-rate, plus the publisher was a cheesy erotica shop. However, as it turned out, the show got yanked off the air after the book was written but before it was printed. The publisher decided to do a quick fix--change the last name of the lead character--and publish it as a standalone work instead.
I found myself highly engrossed in this whodunit about a theater troupe whose leading lady is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Block creates a cast of flamboyant suspects, and the blending of the Broadway motif with the seedier sides of Greenwich Village imparts a distinctive New York flair. The detective character could have used a little more backstory and polish, which is probably symptomatic of the fact tie-in novels assume readers are already familiar with the main characters. The ending was a lot of fun, even if a tad predictable.
Some of my favorite noir-ish quotes:
“This should have made her less desirable, he thought. When a girl has been had by half the world—the male half—it’s no great source of triumph to get her into the rack. But somehow Jan seemed more desirable than ever, at least to him, no matter how much mileage she had on her. Maybe it was the fascination of a mechanic for a highly complex and inordinately efficient piece of machinery.”
“The dark-haired actress literally oozed sex from every pore. And with her in that outfit, he could see all the pores.”
“Johnny closed his eyes and tried to think straight. He was damned if he knew who would want to keep a play from opening. There were people who tried to make sure plays closed early—they called themselves critics—but few who didn’t want a show to open in the first place.”
“I didn’t think there were any virgins left in the world… Well, we’ll find that out by morning when the Medical Examiner’s report comes in. That and other things. If she was raped. If she was pregnant. Anything like that, we’ll find out. You get yourself murdered and you don’t have any privacy at all. It’s one hell of a thing.”
Block chose to use a pseudonym because tie-in novels were viewed as second-rate, plus the publisher was a cheesy erotica shop. However, as it turned out, the show got yanked off the air after the book was written but before it was printed. The publisher decided to do a quick fix--change the last name of the lead character--and publish it as a standalone work instead.
I found myself highly engrossed in this whodunit about a theater troupe whose leading lady is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Block creates a cast of flamboyant suspects, and the blending of the Broadway motif with the seedier sides of Greenwich Village imparts a distinctive New York flair. The detective character could have used a little more backstory and polish, which is probably symptomatic of the fact tie-in novels assume readers are already familiar with the main characters. The ending was a lot of fun, even if a tad predictable.
Some of my favorite noir-ish quotes:
“This should have made her less desirable, he thought. When a girl has been had by half the world—the male half—it’s no great source of triumph to get her into the rack. But somehow Jan seemed more desirable than ever, at least to him, no matter how much mileage she had on her. Maybe it was the fascination of a mechanic for a highly complex and inordinately efficient piece of machinery.”
“The dark-haired actress literally oozed sex from every pore. And with her in that outfit, he could see all the pores.”
“Johnny closed his eyes and tried to think straight. He was damned if he knew who would want to keep a play from opening. There were people who tried to make sure plays closed early—they called themselves critics—but few who didn’t want a show to open in the first place.”
“I didn’t think there were any virgins left in the world… Well, we’ll find that out by morning when the Medical Examiner’s report comes in. That and other things. If she was raped. If she was pregnant. Anything like that, we’ll find out. You get yourself murdered and you don’t have any privacy at all. It’s one hell of a thing.”
April 3, 2015
An early Lawrence Block, written under a pseudonym and now published under his own name. This has a good story with an interesting protagonist, Broadway producer Johnny Lane. Before he can get his show to out-of-town rehearsal showings, his star is killed. He sets out to find out who killed this young innocent and why. Suspects are others in his show--the washed up leading man looking for another shot, a actress who exudes sex appeal, the broken down director looking for redemption, and a couple of no-names who round out the cast. I wouldn't mind a series of mysteries with Johnny Lane, which is funny since the book was based on an old TV series.
December 24, 2016
7/10
156 pages
1962 noir thriller about a play which is threatened by the murder of re of its stars. Johnny Lane, the producer, is our protagonist, searching for clues as to who is attempting to disrupt his upcoming Broadway feature.
Solid Block offering more in line with his classic noir work.
156 pages
1962 noir thriller about a play which is threatened by the murder of re of its stars. Johnny Lane, the producer, is our protagonist, searching for clues as to who is attempting to disrupt his upcoming Broadway feature.
Solid Block offering more in line with his classic noir work.
February 22, 2019
Nothing really to say, only read to read all of the Blocks
August 28, 2013
A bit hokey! But fun just the same.
Read
June 26, 2017Strange Embrace is a 1962 novel by Lawrence Block, originally published under a pseudonym, Ben Christopher. Block explains that it was published by Beacon and Beacon was a particularly chessy publishing house of softcore stuff so no one put their real names on Beacon books at that time.It was originally intended as a tie-in to a tv series, Johnny Midnight, starring Edmund O’Brien as a theatrical producer with a wisecracking Japanese butler, Ito. The series ran for a full season of 39 episodes, but was not renewed.
Although it is packaged by Hard Case Crime with 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is the better of the two novels and the more complete novel. What the two works have in common is a connection to the East Village of Manhattan in 1962 where the hippies, beatniks, and other purveyors of alternative lifestyles gathered and engaged in drugs, orgies, and other behavior, sometimes violence like murder, at least in novels portraying the alternative generation. But, the connection between the two novels doesn’t go much further than that. Unlike 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is a solid pulp whodunit mystery novel that is focused more so on the mystery of who is doing the killings than on the East Village itself.
The basic plot to Strange Embrace is that Johnny Lane is a Broadway producer who has a play that is about to hit the road the next morning: “A Touch of Squalor.” Lane is a little concerned about the fact that his lead actress, Elaine James, is not returning his calls. Elaine is twenty-two “with all the requisite curves in their proper places.” Since Elaine is about as straight-laced, small-town, virginal as could be, Johnny becomes concerned and goes to her apartment, a run-down tenement building in the East Village. Finding her door unlocked, he goes in and looks around and, as any purveyor of pulp mysteries can guess, he finds her nude body sprawled across her bed with her throat slashed. Here, it never occurs to Johnny that he could end up being the chief suspect and, even though his fingerprints are everywhere in the apartment, he calls a friendly homicide detective, Haig. “Elaine James was a lovely girl, she was lovely from the neck down. She was also lovely from the neck up. But her neck was not lovely at all, because somebody had slashed a hole in it.”
Even as the police are trying to solve the puzzling crime, Johnny investigates on his own, interviewing actors in the play, throwing out accusations, and talking to Elaine’s neighbors, including those who are bearded beatniks, those who hang out in marijuana-filled coffeeshops and aren’t sure if they are attracted to men or women. As he explains, Elaine hung out with a “pretty strange crew of Village types. Girls who don’t comb their hair and boys who don’t shave. I think they call them beatniks this year.” He visits one neighbor who won’t get up from his full lotus position and talks about being on a Zen kick and turning on to visions of hallucinatory reality. In the coffeeshop, he sees young men with beards who look like actors on the skids with “torn sweaters, uncut hair, unshaved faces – sprawled over chairs, their eyes shut and their mouths hanging open.” When he finds Sondra in the coffeeshop, she sat “glassy-eyed and inert” and had “violet eyes” that were “unfocused, blank, opaque.” She fits every stereotype of the alternative lifestyle hippies and drug-addled beatniks known to inhabit the East Village.
In some ways, the plot bears a little resemblance to Violence in Velvet by Mike Avallone as both stories focus on murders in a Broadway play.
All in all, it is one terrific novel, solidly hardboiled, solidly humorous, and just plain filled with damn good writing. As a reader, you don’t want to put it down until the mystery is solved. Good stuff, indeed.
Although it is packaged by Hard Case Crime with 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is the better of the two novels and the more complete novel. What the two works have in common is a connection to the East Village of Manhattan in 1962 where the hippies, beatniks, and other purveyors of alternative lifestyles gathered and engaged in drugs, orgies, and other behavior, sometimes violence like murder, at least in novels portraying the alternative generation. But, the connection between the two novels doesn’t go much further than that. Unlike 69 Barrow Street, Strange Embrace is a solid pulp whodunit mystery novel that is focused more so on the mystery of who is doing the killings than on the East Village itself.
The basic plot to Strange Embrace is that Johnny Lane is a Broadway producer who has a play that is about to hit the road the next morning: “A Touch of Squalor.” Lane is a little concerned about the fact that his lead actress, Elaine James, is not returning his calls. Elaine is twenty-two “with all the requisite curves in their proper places.” Since Elaine is about as straight-laced, small-town, virginal as could be, Johnny becomes concerned and goes to her apartment, a run-down tenement building in the East Village. Finding her door unlocked, he goes in and looks around and, as any purveyor of pulp mysteries can guess, he finds her nude body sprawled across her bed with her throat slashed. Here, it never occurs to Johnny that he could end up being the chief suspect and, even though his fingerprints are everywhere in the apartment, he calls a friendly homicide detective, Haig. “Elaine James was a lovely girl, she was lovely from the neck down. She was also lovely from the neck up. But her neck was not lovely at all, because somebody had slashed a hole in it.”
Even as the police are trying to solve the puzzling crime, Johnny investigates on his own, interviewing actors in the play, throwing out accusations, and talking to Elaine’s neighbors, including those who are bearded beatniks, those who hang out in marijuana-filled coffeeshops and aren’t sure if they are attracted to men or women. As he explains, Elaine hung out with a “pretty strange crew of Village types. Girls who don’t comb their hair and boys who don’t shave. I think they call them beatniks this year.” He visits one neighbor who won’t get up from his full lotus position and talks about being on a Zen kick and turning on to visions of hallucinatory reality. In the coffeeshop, he sees young men with beards who look like actors on the skids with “torn sweaters, uncut hair, unshaved faces – sprawled over chairs, their eyes shut and their mouths hanging open.” When he finds Sondra in the coffeeshop, she sat “glassy-eyed and inert” and had “violet eyes” that were “unfocused, blank, opaque.” She fits every stereotype of the alternative lifestyle hippies and drug-addled beatniks known to inhabit the East Village.
In some ways, the plot bears a little resemblance to Violence in Velvet by Mike Avallone as both stories focus on murders in a Broadway play.
All in all, it is one terrific novel, solidly hardboiled, solidly humorous, and just plain filled with damn good writing. As a reader, you don’t want to put it down until the mystery is solved. Good stuff, indeed.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews