The Girl with the Long Green Heart

by Lawrence Block

Johnny Hayden and Doug Rance had a scheme to take real estate entrepreneur Wallace Gunderman for all he was worth. But they needed a girl on the inside to make it work.

Enter Evelyn Stone: Gunderman's secretary, his lover - and his worst enemy. Gunderman promised to marry her, but never came through. Now she's ready to make him pay...

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Noir, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Pulp

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Lawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.

His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.

LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.

Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.

LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.

Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.

LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)

LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.

He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1965, this is another pulp classic from Lawrence Block, now resurrected by the folks at Hard Case Crime. The main protagonist, Johnny Hayden, is fresh out of the slammer and determined to never go back. He's toiling away at a job in a bowling alley, making peanuts but attempting to save what he can in the hope of one day owning his own restaurant. All he needs is thirty grand or so, and at the rate he's going, it should only take him about thirty years to save that much.

But then along comes an old pal named Doug Rance who has a plan to work a sure-fire long con on a real estate investor named Wallace Gunderman. Gunderman is one of those self-confident guys who's so full of himself it's amazing that he can stand up straight. Some time back, Gunderman got suckered into buying some virtually worthless Canadian land, and he's been steaming about it ever since.

Rance proposes a plan to play off Gunderson's anger and his inflated sense of his own intelligence by offering to buy the land that Gunderson was suckered into purchasing. Gunderson will naturally wonder why anyone would want the land and will suspect that maybe the land is more valuable than he thought. Perhaps he should buy even more!

Rance wants his old pal Johnny to be the "roper" who will lure Gunderman into the deal. He insists that it's a can't-miss proposition and the best part is that it will net Johnny the thirty grand he needs to buy his restaurant. Rance has also enlisted in the scheme Gunderman's lover and personal secretary, the very sexy Evelyn Stone, and once Johnny meets her, there's no turning back.

It's really fun to watch this scheme play out; the con itself is pretty ingenious and the characters are very well done. Gunderman is a complete jerk, and you find yourself inevitably rooting for the con artists to pick him dry. A great way to waste away an evening.

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even after taking the fall, after doing a bit in the big house (San Quentin aka Q, to be specific), it's hard for a born confidence man to keep it on the straight and narrow. That's not to say that our man, Johnny Hayden isn't trying. But, giving up the grift is never easy.

The ingredients are nothing new—they never really are. Johnny, working the night shift at a bowling alley, pinching pennies like your average rube, is approached by a friend from the past pitching Johnny the classic plea to help him out with one last job. The foundation work's been laid, and the mark (flush with vanity, greed and overconfidence in himself) is perfect for the picking.

The stages of the con are still the same, but each job is different nonetheless, and Lawrence Block knows how to dish each act out at the perfect pace. The reader is like the shill, playing the bit part, watching the evolution with a mix of anticipation and dread, and loving every moment.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dames...a fella can't live with 'em and he can't live without 'em!

When John Hayden gets out of the clink after a 7 year stint, he ain't lookin' to go back any time soon. His dream is to go straight and buy a bar/inn out in the sticks, but he needs capital to make that happen and working at a bowling alley ain't cuttin' it. So, when an old friend comes along with a sweet real estate con job that would make his dream come true, Hayden has to say yes.

Of course, with a title like The Girl with the Long Green Heart you can imagine things get a little more complicated than that. When Evelyn Stone enters the picture, the picture changes.

With a strong plot, decently rounded characters and a fun crime story to boot, I enjoyed the heck out of this. Also, it was cool to read an early book by Lawrence Block. You can see the young version of him putting it all together (I wanted to say "putting the building blocks together" but I rose above!) and developing the talents he would need to create his excellent Matthew Scudder series.

A very strong 3.5 stars!

[Carla Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

02/2012

I loved it. Block is (or at least was in the 60s, I haven't read any of his recent work) such a really good writer for this sort of pulpy pulp. This one felt like a lighter Jim Thompson.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

After doing a stretch in San Quentin, Johnny Hayden decides to commit to a quiet life in middle management. While saving up to buy a local motel and quietly completing a correspondence course in hospitality, Johnny is approached by an old friend with a con to end all cons. Reluctant at first, Johnny eventually caves after careful analysis suggests the plan is a sure thing. The only hiccup? There’s an amateur involved. Will the scheme go off without a hitch or will their accomplice’s inexperience lead to their downfall?

Hard Case Crime has become my go to when I want to relax with a swift read between larger, more demanding novels. This isn't a slight against the quality of work – not at all – I just find the stories read like swift punches to the gut. The writing is very clean and clear and the plots are always interesting. Charles Ardai sure knows what he’s doing when he puts that stamp of approval on a crime novel.

Most of the novel takes place in the Northeast United States as well as Toronto and the scheme itself involves purchasing land in the Canadian Midwest province of Alberta. Knowing what we know now in just how vastly rich that province is, it almost would've have been worth their while to hang onto the land. Johnny and Doug could have been oil tycoons!

Block’s prose is just so easily digestible. I know it’s a short book – only 251 pages (with a very racy cover I might add) – but I flew through this in just two sittings. When it comes to the plot, it’s hard to believe Block hasn't set up one of these cons himself, everything seems so flawless. Well, it’s either that or he was once taken by a smooth-talking grifter himself.

Man, what an ending. I thought I had it all figured out but Block goes and blindsides me like a snow storm in July. It’s everything a Hard Case Crime novel should be, it’s unexpected and brutal. It just goes to show the timeless quality of Block’s work. With the exception of one major difference – lessened security at the airport (no fault of Block’s) – this novel holds up today despite being published nearly 50 years ago.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulpy Tagline!: "From the top of her beautiful, brilliant head, to the pit of her merciless soul, she was filled with larceny." (Gold Medal edition)

Everyone likes reading about con artists. Stories about people using their brains and wits as weapons to fool someone and get away with it are pretty hard to resist. In this early novel by master Lawrence Block, John Hayden is a skilled confidence man who has just gotten out of San Quentin and has decided to put it all behind him and hang up his grifter's cap. That is until he gets approached to be a part of the mother of all long cons. A long con so sweet that even as his conscience tells him he should live a quiet life managing a bowling alley, the gratification of pulling it off is just something he can't resist.

Block pays a great attention to details of the inner-workings of such an elaborate hustle; it was such a pleasure to read. The con is super complex but I was never confused and that's a testament to Block's control of his material. I'd recommend this for all lovers of classic crime and noir. It's definitely a slow build-up where you'll get engulfed in their set-up and ache to see how they pull it off. But then once the twists start flying, so will the pages!

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a Lawrence Block so expect the unexpected if you can imagine what that might be. i.e. What's up is down and what's down is up.

Johnny, the primary protagonist who was recently released from prison and Doug, the secondary, are both grifters. Doug sells Johnny the flawless, can't go wrong grift. Johnny has be flying straight but this last caper will allow him enough money to fulfill his dream of buying a roadhouse, revamping it and making money legally without looking over his shoulder. The third person in the scam plays the mark's knock-out secretary whose split is minimal.

Everyone is happy since the plan is seamless and they've reeled in an easy sap who thinks he’s making out like a bandit himself.

Then out of nowhere almost at the end, Block does a complete unexpected U-turn.

It's Lawrence Block. What do I expect? Well, something better than good. A great storyline with great characters and boy, I got it.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block, in the Hard Case Crime collection, is my third early Block standalone, all involving a con man, an older rich man, and a girl in the middle. Johnny Hayden is out of prison after seven years hard time, determined never to go back, working in a bowling alley, but his old pal Doug Rance lures him into a faster way to make some dough, a real estate con where they hope to take a guy, Wallace, for $100K over some remote real estate in Alberta.

The old man has a secretary and lover, Evelyn, who has been promised marriage for years, so she gets involved in the con. All the real estate details reveal the depth of Block's careful research, but also make this a little less interesting than Lucky at Cards (involving a card sharp), or even The Grifter's Game, where a suitcase full of heroin is central, but the ending of the Green Girl is a huge surprise, and a big winner. See that racy cover? Seduced, as Johnny and the other two guys were?

Thought so. But you are maybe thinking this work is sexist, demeaning to her? In all three of these books I have just read, the central woman is no easy mark. As with the work I have been reading recently of Charles Willeford, where women often get the upper-hand over stupid, sexist men, Block likes to manipulate the cons in these books and we readers into thinking that all women are just empty-headed sex objects. But you are almost always wrong if you underestimate the "pretty" women in these books. Block is so good, even early on, 1965. Puts on a pulpy noir clinic.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely perfect and flawless. In fact, technically, there is just a touch too much virtuosity in the construction and composition. Sometimes ‘noir’ should be a little rougher…. Anyway, a great read….

[fleurette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love heist movies and this is a book about a complicated scam. I love the whole idea.

There are so few books of this type (especially addressed to adult readers). How good it is that I accidentally found this one.

The whole intrigue is perhaps not the most complicated but it is exciting and well prepared. I also like the main character, who is not just another smart guy. John is a complicated and interesting hero who likes what he does and is good at it. It was nice to follow him through the story.

Although I must admit that I liked the ending the most when John and Doug had to work under pressure. This part is the most fascinating and the most exciting. Although I admit that I expected that everything could end up like this. I admit, however, that I was hoping that John would look through the whole game of Evie and stop her. I thought his feelings for her are just a play. It is a pity that it is different.

It's a very nice read. I do not think there is any other book about John and Doug. It really is a shame because I would be happy to read it.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly read waiting for the plane to leave London for Budapest

A really well written con-noir that manages to conjure vivid images in your mind. You expect things to go wrong and when they do Block takes you on a fast paced journey with Johnny Hayden in the aftermath.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 217 (of 250)
One of the best covers I've seen!
HOOK=2 stars: "When the phone rang, I was shaving. I put my razor down and walked across the room to pick up the phone on the bedside table," reads the opening line/paragraph. In 3 pages, the narrator proposes to buy land in Canada from a wealthy man whose secretary is a beauty and wears a green jade heart as a necklace. This is a con, but it takes several chapters for the story to begin. An easy one to set aside.
PACE=2: A rather slow set-up, as we know this kind of con: a business is set up to look legitimate (remember the Robert Redford/Paul Newman film, "The Sting"?) and since this is a done-to-death con, the preliminaries are just too familiar and Block doesn't seem to know his readers have read, in many forms, the first 2/3rds of this novel. For example, "I made my plane and was at La Guardia an hour and twenty minutes later. I took a limousine into Manhattan, mailed the last two letters, rode back to the airport and caught a luncheon flight for Toronto by way of Montreal." There is much in the way of flying around and mailing letters, etc., and it all feels like filler material.
PLOT=3: Standard con game: the sell of questionable land. The target has fell for it once (purchasing useless land in Canada), and I couldn't believe the same target may or may not fall for it a 2nd time. Perhaps the target has a game of his own? Or, is the the beautiful girl plotting and planning all along? The last 1/3rd of the book is very good, making up for the mostly lackluster first 2/3rds.
CHARACTERS=3: The titular Girl is memorable (she is smarter than everyone) but upon closing the book I couldn't think of a single name I'd read. I did recall, though, one of the particularly rotten con men as at one point he thinks, in a show of his idea of kindness, 'No man should have to put out for more than one man in one night.' Yea, rotten. An unforgettable line perfectly describing a character.
ATMOSPHERE/PLACE=2: The story could happen any place on the globe. "Everything's a racket" says one of the con artist, and I can't help but agree, including expanding this good novella into an entire novel.
SUMMARY: My overall rating is 2.4. It seems to me that Hard Case books are indeed a mixed bad from the past. Still, I gotta say the cover is a stunner: reminds me that in the golden days of pulp fiction some authors were presented with a steamy cover and asked to author a book about said cover. This cover is probably a new one, so I gotta praise Robert McGinnis for his artwork: it's good enough to sell a book, certainly. And the best part of the book.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're gonna run a grift, even a perfect one, never involve an impossibly beautiful woman in your plans...

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite kind of crime novel: everybody is a scumbag and there isn't a good guy in sight.
This one is a bit slow, though. 4/5ths of the book is just a group of people setting up a con. Luckily the fun picks up near the end when everything starts falling apart (as they always do in these kinds of stories).

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well let's not mess about here, I LOVED is book! Block is a class act and is, to this day, turning out brilliant stories time after time. This book was first published in '65 and it still feels fresh today. A brilliantly structured grifters tale. I cared about the characters and didn't see the twists coming. What could be better? I'm going to work my way through more of the author's extensive back catalogue - and there's a lot to choose from.

[Murdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very straightforward pulp noir, complete with all the iconography; ex-con trying to go straight, lowdown bar joints, the temptation of one last job, the dodgy partner, the sleazy mark, the femme fatale, and the grift. And the dark heart. Block's writing is lean and graceful, there's no flab whatsoever on this muscle as it punches you in the guts.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty predictable crime novel about a real estate con game. I saw the twist coming from the beginning of the story. It went on way too long, and would have made a better short story.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girl with the Long Green Heart by Lawrence Block, #014 in the Hard Case Crime collection. Classic example of Mr. Block doing that thing he does so well, creating first class crime fiction.

Originally published in 1965, reprinted by HCC in 2005, The Girl with the Long Green Heart shows its age ever so slightly. Not in a bad way, more in the sense that it recalls a bygone era when life seemed to be simpler. It wasn’t, it just seems that way. Everybody chain smokes cigarettes, has cocktails with lunch, and just seems to be ever so slightly more polite and civilized - at least on the surface.

Written so smoothly and flawlessly that the story seems deceptively simple. In brief, two con men put together a deal to swindle a wealthy entrepreneur out of $100,000. With the assistance of the man’s alluring secretary (who has a personal axe to grind) they set their plan into motion. Almost from the beginning the plot revolves around Johnny Hayden and Evvie Stone, things go well, but as the con tightens up and the stakes get higher it becomes apparent that things are going a little too well. Something will go wrong, it’s just a question of what, when and why. That’s the fun of this story, the anticipation of what’s coming next.

The story consists almost exclusively of the four main characters: Doug Rance, Johnny Hayden, Evelyn “Evvie” Stone and Wallace Gunderman.

Doug Rance, now in his early 30s, was a talented but untried kid when Hayden knew him 10-years ago, now he wants to put his own con together with former mentor Johnny Hayden in the mix.

Johnny Hayden, 42-years-old, after serving 7 years in San Quentin for a con gone wrong he is determined to go straight. With less than a year of freedom behind him he’s doing a pretty good job of it, living a simple life in a small town, working at a bowling alley, saving what little money he can to put towards his dream of buying a roadhouse and going into business for himself. When Rance shows up out of nowhere it isn’t all that hard to convince Johnny to throw in with him on a new con.

Wallace Gunderman is the mark, a wealthy investor who was once burned on a real estate deal in Canada and would love nothing more than to unload the worthless moose land he was conned into buying. Nothing...except, perhaps, finding a way to turn the deal around and make an obscene profit off that same land.

Evelyn “Evvie” Stone is the woman on the inside. Gunderman’s secretary and lover has an axe to grind with her boss. He’s been stringing her along for years with empty promises of marriage and living the good life of a lady of leisure. She’s tired of waiting.

The Girl with the Long Green Heart is a fun, fast, easy read. There is some use of strong language (very mild by modern standards) and sexual content that is more suggestive than graphic. I would rate it firmly in the PG category.

[John Bowie · Rating 5 out of 5]

”ESSENTIAL READING FOR NOIR LOVERS AND THOSE STUDYING THE CRAFT…” – Bristol Noir / John Bowie

I devoured this Hard Case Crime gem whilst traveling between cities for my day job; Gonzo-style, I sat in service stations, greasy spoons, cafes, street-lit car parks as the real life characters filled my settings – these added to the pictures the book painted so well in my head:

Lawrence Block throws you straight in with easily absorbed dialogue…pushing rather than pulling you along with the grift – like their target – I was incapable of avoiding the sting…the story and its destination; loving it every step of the way…

Sharp dialogue is matched with a savvy, acute analysis; weighing up an ever evolving prognosis of the situations and the psychologies driving the characters. All this is expressed clearly by the protagonist and written in a way that makes you feel as sharp as him as you read on and join in – as they figure the target with you; pulling at the necessary strings in and out of the book.

There’s a seamless timeline jump early on; setting up the background to the story and characters. Another later on, fills in the protagonist’s past; teeing it all up perfectly for the unfolding set-pieces and then the finale.

The cons feel real; easy to empathise with. And the girl feels a classic and comfortingly familiar essential ingredient from the get-go…for the genre and this story.

I was so gripped, I was 100 pages in before i stopped for breath and realised I was more than a third through – already, I wished there was more to go than there was left. A sign of a great book and a premature appreciation maybe… but I really didn’t want it to end, and savored it.

It’s bitter sweet: discovering a book along like this…so good; your coffee is left to go cold and beer flat…it’s THAT GOOD. If you like hard-boiled, noir and crime thrillers: read it. If you’ve read it already: give it another go and remind yourself of the noir-magic.

If you don’t own The Girl With The Green Heart’ it’s here: on Amazon.

IF YOU YOU LIKE THIS, THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE YOU’LL LIKE THE FOLLOWING TITLES TOO; CURRENTLY KEEPING IT COMPANY ON OUR SHELVES:

GRIFTER’S GAME by Lawrence Block

FIFTY TO ONE by Charles Ardai

LITTLE GIRL LOST by Richard Aleas

BUST by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

This and other Lawrence Block books on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2FsZBPU

More great Hard Case Crime Books on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2FsQ1ML

------------------------------------
WWW.BRISTOLNOIR.CO.UK
------------------------------------

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reissue of a paperback original. This 1965 novel is classic Lawrence Block at his best. The biggest flaw is that the kindle version has a plain Jane cover instead of the racy one found on the paperback version. Think Redford and Newman in The Sting and you'll have a handle on this book. Although in an afterword, Block points out that his book was published half a dozen years before the movie came out.

John Hayden is eight months out of San Quentin after doing a seven year stretch and working in a Colorado bowling alley when Doug Rance looks him up. Hayden was a guy who ran long cons and usually was successful at it. The best two handed con, the narrator explains, is when one guy has the charm and the other the sincerity. Hayden was the guy people trusted and Rance was the charmer. Hayden and Rance offer to buy from William Gunderman Canadian property he bought years before at the behest of a sharp salesman. Gunderson is fighting mad about having been suckered on that deal. His secretary, Evelyn Stone, is something worth looking at. In fact, Evvie is in on the con cause she's tired of waiting on Gunderman to marry her. The hook is baited and they are going to reel in the big fish this time.

The amazing thing about this book is how absolutely engrossing it is without much real action for most of it. Just some dialogue and some narrative. First class writing deserving of nothing less than the highest rating. I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Girl with the Long Green Heart' is an unusual member in the Hard Case Crime Series: the plot doesn't start as a hard felony but a white-collar crime, involving a lot of fraud and deception. This emphasis doesn't make it a bad book, but slows down the narrative flow in the first two thirds of the novel. First, the tricksters explain the deceit to themselves and then, they try to fool the victim. That's not boring, but the pace of the narration is somehow sedate. Only the last third turns out to be a fast read and the end is quite surprising, albeit not totally unpredictable. But as the book has merely 250 pages, I would recommend it to fans of HCC or Lawrence Block, despite it's minor flaws. Block is a master of the genre and his style of writing is very enjoyable.

[Lynn Pribus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I always like Block. This was an audio book by a good reader, very dated with the main character smoking a lot, able to take a gun aboard an plane, travel on Mohawk Airlines under another name, having to handle business via phone -- not cell -- and getting a decent hotel room (with room service!) for $20 a night.

And pay toilets -- you never see those these days.

The usual good dialogue and moving steadily forward with the dialog -- this one about a big swindle complete with double dealings and double crosses. Moves right along. A nice break from THE SWAN THIEVES which is getting very long.

[Brian Layman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have to say that this story is all about hammers. All kind of hammers. Through out the read you are waiting for them to drop, for you KNOW they MUST be there. But for you to see which hammer drops first on which gun, you must read the book.

Of course an equal argument is that the book is about the other shoe. I'll leave it up to you to decide..

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

You cannot talk about this book very long without giving away the secret. It's good for moody atmosphere and terse language. I mostly saw the end coming, and I'm not particularly clever, but there was still a surprise there also. I wanted to like the protagonist, but mostly I felt sorry for him that he is such a sap.

[Carrie Garza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recently gifted a box of books, which is where I came across this one. The copyright on this book is 1965 and it was still a good book.

The story follows a couple grifters or con men as they set up a long con. It of course goes wrong at the very end but they come out alright. It was well written, not hard at all to read and realyy quite interesting.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one and "Grifter's Game" are my favorite Block books so far. This one was a lot like "The Sting" or "Matchstick Men" about a long con and cons within cons and so forth. It's fun if you like that sort of thing, which I do.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Girl with the Long Green Heart was originally published in 1965, and I always like checking when a book was written. There is a fun time capsule aspect to it. Also, it’s good to be cognizant of the language and worldviews, although I didn’t have issues with this book.

Once the book got moving and the con was established, it wasn’t much of a challenge to see the ending. I mean, look at the cover, it may not give it away, but it leans in a direction. There are still surprises and twists, but the real joy is watching each step build into the con.

The story is tight. We see and follow the scheme without picking up any side quests. The action comes primarily through dialogue, and if you want some noir, danger, and intrigue, this doesn't have any of that. But it is interesting. The planning, the set-up, and the careful toying of the mooch all have small details that make it feel real, to both the reader and the mark.

In the end though, I'm not walking away with much that will stick with me. There are no scenes that my brain craved to fully explore. The characters are all solid, but there wasn’t any cleverness that tickled my brain. I wanted something to throw me for a loop. It was soup from the can, adequate and filling, but nothing more.

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I got out of prison a little less than a year ago, Evie,” explains main character John Hayden to Block’s femme fatale. “It was the first really hard time I’d ever served. And I decided I wasn’t going back. Not ever. I took a square job and stuck with it.” But then what happened? Well, “…Doug Rance turned up with a proposition.” Soon John and Doug are smoothly working a long con on an unsuspecting businessman myopically hellbent on real estate profit. Written in 1965, this is one of the most rollicking and captivating noir tales that I’ve read, mostly on the merit of the propulsive, steady plot. It has everything, including the classic “one more job” trope, and a dame that will set your imagination absolutely wild. A master at allowing readers to paint the picture on their own, like Ed McBain and Elmore Leonard, Block doesn’t spell out every teensy detail. Some Block stories come in series, like the “Keller” novels about a lonely, likable hit man, and the “Matthew Scudder” books about an ex-alcoholic PI in the Big City (e.g., Time to Murder and Create, etc.). While the con here doesn’t go according to plan, it’s not exactly unhappy. “I thought about the dream. And I thought about the girl. And about all dreams and all girls. No dreams come true I guess. And no girls are as perfect as the heart would have them.” VERDICT Dudes will be nodding along with the road-tested wisdom that John Hayden exudes.

Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.

[Cedricsmom · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
It's easy to see what makes LB a master of the genre. But I wanted to know more about Evvie Stone. The girl with the long green 💚 seemed like more of a plot device to me. The main character is Johnny Hayden. I know there's lots more to Evvie but I guess that's in another book. I will definitely read more Lawrence Block.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic hard boiled mystery about a couple of grifters and their long con. Block is a master of spare prose and paces his story perfectly.