Lawrence Block

Well past retirement age and feeling his years--but still staying sober one day at a time--Matthew Scudder learns that alcoholics aren't the only ones who count the days since their last slip. Matt's longtime partner, Elaine, tells him of a group of former sex workers who do something similar, helping each other stay out of the life. But when one young woman describes an abusive client who's refusing to let her quit, Elaine encourages her to get help...

Presents an inside look at fiction writing as a craft and as a career, drawn from four years worth of columns featured in "Writer's Digest," and covering topics such as market analysis, plots and outlines, writing classes, handling rejection, collaborating, and writer's block.

When ex-policeman and recovering alcoholic Matthew Scudder is stalked by a psychotic killer who murders, one by one, Scudders' friends and acquaintances, his fate hinges on the survival of a glamorous call girl.

As private investigator Matthew Scudder contemplates retirement, he takes on a case for a friend who wants a background check on his daughter's suitor and finds himself menaced by a killer from the past.

"A down-on-his luck American airman...a beautiful international adventuress...a mysterious Chinese courier...a scrap of paper worth many lives and the peace of the entire world...and a jigsaw pattern of treachery and sudden death that had been expertly designed to deceive and destroy. Enter the inimitable Mr. Moto, the only one who could hope to decipher and defuse the situation. Casey Lee, the airman, would never forget this extraordinary figure...

"Matthew Scudder is dying, one bottle at a time. A young prostitute named Kim Dakkinen is dying too, her life measured out in tricks. She wanted out, had asked for Scudder's help, but suddenly she wasn't dying anymore, she was just dead. The former cop turned P.I. promised to protect her, but he failed. Now his atonement is to find her killer. But the secrets in the dead hooker's past are dirtier than her living, and searching for a killer in a city...

Matt Scudder is an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. When Scudder agrees to help a heroin trafficker hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, the PI learns that this is not the first time these men have committed this sort of twisted crime, nor will it be the last. Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Scudder races to track the deviants through the backstreets...

"Collection of published and unpublished gems: a memoir about learning to write, an imaginary interview between Westlake's various identities, essays on writing, introductions, and letters to writers like Stephen King and Brian Garfield. A true miscellany, this includes a piece by Abigail Westlake, a recipe for "May's Famous Tuna Casserole" and a 'Midnight snack'."--From the publisher.