But Beacon wanted more from Sheldon Lord, and Scott Meredith’s merry men figured out how to handle that. They enlisted ghostwriters to furnish Sheldon Lord manuscripts, and in return for the use of my name, I got a slice of the advance. Two hundred dollars a book, if I remember correctly.
And how many of these ghostwritten manuscripts were there over a two or three year period? Beats me. Eight or ten, something like that? I didn’t know anything about the ghosts and never saw their books or knew what they were writing. One guy was named Milo and one guy wasn’t, and my old college buddy Peter Hochstein wrote at least one of the books, with results that were interesting enough to discuss in the afterword to April North. But the whole ghosting operation had pretty much stopped by the time Scott Meredith and I parted company.
I don’t think I had Beacon in mind when I wrote Lucky at Cards. It’s a straight suspense novel, not a soft-core sex opus, and I probably intended it for Gold Medal, where I’d already published Grifter’s Game and Coward’s Kiss—albeit under other titles. But I needed a quick sale, and that’s probably what made me send the manuscript to Bernie Williams at Beacon.
Well, he loved it. I had lunch with him in New York, and we had this wacky conversation in which he told me how much of an improvement the book was on my recent work for them. It required hardly any editing, he said, and showed me some pages of a recent Sheldon Lord manuscript that had been edited to death. It was comforting to know I was better than the guys who’d been ghosting for me, but it made for a weird moment or two.
Bernie called the book The Sex Shuffle, perhaps thinking that the promise of sex might help offset the book’s lack of much sexual content. And he did something Beacon has never done before or since, so far as I know: He put a quote on the cover enthusing about the book. The source of the quote was given as one otherwise unidentified “William Bernard,” and my keen analytical mind leads me to suspect that it was in fact Bernie Williams.
There was a wonderful moment at that lunch. Bernie had an idea for a book I might write next, one that examined the relationship of an older husband with a much younger wife. “It’s almost a cliché in fiction,” he said, “but the thing is it’s always portrayed negatively. I’d like to see a book in which a marriage like that works out. Because sometimes it does work out. Sometimes a marriage like that can be a huge success.”
That was the only time I met Bernie, and I never did meet his wife, whom I’m certain must have been a good twenty years his junior. I can only hope they went on being happy together. He was a nice man, and he bought a book from me when I sorely needed a sale. I never did take a shot at his May-December novel because a fellow named Ken Bressett, who’d bought articles from me for the Whitman Numismatic Journal, showed up in Buffalo and offered me a job. We sold the house and moved to Racine, Wisconsin.
Years later, Charles Ardai snapped up The Sex Shuffle, restored its original title, Lucky at Cards, and published it at Hard Case Crime. Here’s a review from Publishers Weekly: “The Hard Case Crime imprint has found a perfect partner in Block, as this gritty Grifter’s tale, in print for the first time in forty years, goes to show … The plot twists here, then there, then back again, rooted in Block’s strong characters and no-nonsense prose style.”
And here’s another from Bill Tot in Booklist:Before Matt Scudder, before Bernie Rhodenbarr, before being named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Lawrence Block turned out paperback originals. This one—unavailable for more than 40 years—now receives a timely reissue from Hard Case Crime. It’s a doozy… Block unwinds his plot superbly, pointing toward a classic noir finale but then seeming to pull away—or maybe not. And, along the way, there is all the teasing sexuality and tongue-in-cheek noir style that a pulp devotee craves.
The book probably owes a little to The Tooth and the Nail, by Bill S. Ballinger, a fine writer who’s pretty much forgotten these days. Let’s hope he’s rediscovered. If Lucky at Cards can have a new life as an ebook after all these years, well, anything’s possible, isn’t it?
—Lawrence Block
Greenwich Village
Lawrence Block (lawbloc@gmail.com) welcomes your email responses; he reads them all, and replies when he can.
A Biography of Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block (b. 1938) is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Leaving school before graduation, he moved to New York City, a locale that features prominently in most of his works. His earliest published writing appeared in the 1950s, frequently under pseudonyms, and many of these novels are now considered classics of the pulp fiction genre. During his early writing years, Block also worked in the mailroom of a publishing house and reviewed the submission slush pile for a literary agency. He has cited the latter experience as a valuable lesson for a beginning writer.
Block’s first short story, “You Can’t Lose,” was published in 1957 in Manhunt, the first of dozens of short stories and articles that he would publish over the years in publications including American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and the New York Times. His short fiction has been featured and reprinted in over eleven collections including Enough Rope (2002), which is comprised of eighty-four of his short stories.
In 1966, Block introduced the insomniac protagonist Evan Tanner in the novel The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep. Block’s diverse heroes also include the urbane and witty bookseller—and thief-on-the-side—Bernie Rhodenbarr; the gritty recovering alcoholic and private investigator Matthew Scudder; and Chip Harrison, the comical assistant to a private investigator with a Nero Wolfe fixation who appears in No Score, Chip Harrison Scores Again, Make Out with Murder, and The Topless Tulip Caper. Block has also written several short stories and novels featuring Keller, a professional hit man. Block’s work is praised for his richly imagined and varied characters and frequent use of humor.
A father of three daughters, Block lives in New York City with his second wife, Lynne. When he isn’t touring or attending mystery conventions, he and Lynne are frequent travelers, as members of the Travelers’ Century Club for nearly a decade now, and have visited about 150 countries.
A four-year-old Block in 1942.
