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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780843953497
ISBN number: 0843953497
Label: Hard Case Crime
Manufacturer: Hard Case Crime
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 205
Printing Date: September 07, 2004
Publishing house: Hard Case Crime
Sale Popularity Level: 305443
Studio: Hard Case Crime
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Product Description:
From a Noir Master, a Classic Tale of Grift and Greed.
Con man Joe Marlin was used to scoring easy cash off beautiful women. But that was before he met Mona Brassard and found himself facing the most dangerous con of his career, one that will leave him either a killer -- or a corpse.
Presented unabridged on 5 CDs; narrated by Alan Sklar.
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Rated by buyers 
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"Grifter's Game" is hardly bad. You'll find it sufficiently diverting while serving jury duty or on a plane. But it is remarkably derivative of the real McCoys (including Horace McCoy) -- James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, and David Goodis, among others.
I agree with another reviewer, who observed that "Grifter's Game" is little more than a bloated and padded short story. I was also annoyed by a risible and quite literally unbelievable characteristic of the protagonist. And not only risible and unbelievable -- hackneyed even in the 1960s. I'm referring to the "hero" as not only attractive to women (fair enough), but downright irresistible. Yawn. I also hated the ending, which was extraordinarily ugly. Goodis could have pulled it off; Block failed miserably.
Give this book a miss, and curl up instead with "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "The Killer Inside Me", or "The Blonde on the Street Corner".
Rated by buyers 
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Grifter's Game was originally published in 1961 as "Mona", a better title. It's the very first in the Hard Case crime series, and the very first of the series' period reissues, as opposed to its original publications. It's also the very first of the reissues which I've read, after four excellent originals (Little Girl Lost, Songs of Innocence, Confession, and Fade to Blonde). And since, I've started on 2008's Money Shot, and I'm hooked.
While any work needs to be evaluated in the context in which it was written, certain universal standards must be applied. Human nature never changes, and therefore we see ourselves in the pages of even Chauser or Shakespeare. But Grifter's Game fails to connect, never rising above its genre. In the book, the protagonist Joe buys a stack of dime store fiction to pass the time. I imagine Mona might have been among them. A quick read, a distraction from other matters, in a time where reading a novel was an ordinary day-to-day activity, before the ubiquity of television, or later, the internet.
Aspects of the book I found interesting weren't in the plot, but rather in the window the book provided into the time. Joe is almost constantly partaking of one drug or another: nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol. It's never asked if a character smokes, it's assumed, and correctly so. A striking contrast to today, and even compared with Fade to Blonde, written in 2004 but taking place in the early '50's. And the level of sex seems exceptional by what I imagine to be 1961 standards. A striking difference to yesterday is the depiction of illegal drugs: their taboo and mystery. Then there's the view of tranportation: a time where train and bus were normal inter-city modes, a time before the monopolized supremacy of the car and plane.
But overall, this book failed to spur my interest in reading more of Block's work. It simply fails to engage to the depths of the other Hard Case books I've read so far, each of which I strongly recommend. I hope some of the other reissues offer more.
Rated by buyers 
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Joe Marlin is a small-time conman. He supports himself by checking into luxury hotels, running up a large tab, and then ducking out on the bill. Of course, when he leaves, he needs to abandon his luggage, so he sometimes steals new luggage in order to check into the subsequent hotel. He gets far more than he bargained for, though, when he filches some luggage in the Atlantic City train station - a little surprise in the form of a huge chunk of heroin. Fortunately, the owner doesn't figure out that Marlin has the dope, but someone else does - a beautiful vamp named Mona. This development sends into motion a series of events that leads to no good.
"Grifter's Game" was originally released in 1961 as "Mona," which is probably a more accurate if less exciting title for this book. It's the very first Lawrence Block novel I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. His writing is extremely good at times, as is he use of hardboiled dialogue. Block also includes great humor; for example, while watching a Hitchcock film, Marlin makes some amusing observations about the tendency of noir to rely on coincidences. In addition, the characters are interesting and manage to be a bit more nuanced than you often see in this genre. The only debit is the final chapter, which is a bit of a disappointment.
This book was the very first in the Hard Case Crime releases; I love the eye-catching covers reminiscent of the golden era of noir. I would have liked a short introduction or summary of Block's work in this edition. However, such information is so easily available online nowadays that it's understandable that the publisher has chosen to make these brief novels as streamlined as possible. Overall, "Grifter's Game" is a terrific re-release that has encouraged me to want to purchase further entries in the series as well as other Block books.
Rated by buyers -
I love a great mystery and love the classic pulp stories of radio and print. This is a combination of both. While no mystery is present here the following of these two characters thru the seedy world of drugs and hitmen gives you a great feel for those early pulps. A few twists and turns here and there (I hate spoilers so don't look for any!) will keep you reading and this book is so short it will give you a few hours reading at most. Good but you defintly have to love pulp and classical writing. Reccomend!
Rated by buyers -
Our "hero" Joe is a somewhat likeable con man who drifts around until he stumbles onto Mona.. the bored attractive housewife married to a rich old guy.. where have we heard that before... they go from a one night stand to joe wanting to spend the rest of his life with her in literally the turn of a page.. a bit hard to believe for a seasoned hard boiled con man.. a smitten school boy perhaps. Anyway Joe pulls off a well designed crime.. and what was interesting how the writer portrayed this type of character... lots of time on their hands..a lonely existence... almost bored to tears.. Bit of an odd ending for me.. but a quick read and overall worthwhile...
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