ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS

This collection of 25 short stories and three novellas represents the apprenticeship years of Edgar-winner Lawrence Block, written, as the author explains in the introduction, when "my typewriter still had training wheels." The first half of the collection, stories written between 1958 and 1961, are cliché-ridden samples of pulp writing composed by a still-maturing writer. Scott Brick and Mike Chamberlain are unable to help these works. But John H. Mayer, the third of three alternating readers, puts a gruff, wry edge to his voice, making the stories enjoyable. Robert Forster, of the 1970s TV program "Banyon" and, more recently, "Heroes," steals the show with his reading of the three novellas featuring private eye Ed London. These pieces, all originally published in 1963, are gems of private eye writing. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2009]