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Five Great Novels is the Lawrence Block omnibus that collects one entry from each of his major series, and reading the volume straight through is one of the cleanest possible introductions to what a working professional looks like across the form's entire emotional range. The Matt Scudder novel is the cold-burning melancholy. The Bernie Rhodenbarr is the comic caper. The Keller is the strange domestic-life-of-a-hitman material that almost no one else has done.
Block's genius is that he writes all of these with the same first-person discipline and a different but recognizable voice for each. The Scudder voice is the most demanding to read. The Bernie voice is the most entertaining. The Keller voice is the most disconcerting, because Keller is a sociopath whose interior monologue is almost normal.
Five stars. A useful entry point for readers who have only sampled Block. Recommended without reservation.
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