Sunday 7 January 2018

LAWRENCE BLOCK - RESUME SPEED (2016)


Synopsis/blurb.....

From the legendary author of A Walk Among the Tombstones comes this gripping tale of sudden endings and new beginnings. When a man called Bill spots a sign in a restaurant window, he grabs his carry-on and gets off his bus. Within an hour he’s got himself a job as a short-order cook, and a start on a whole new life in Cross Creek, Montana. Things just fall into place. He applies for a library card, and the next thing you know he’s having dinner with the librarian. One thing leads to another, and he can see a whole new life stretching out before him…

A man on a bus disembarks before his ticketed stop and constructs a new life for himself in Cross Creek. Bill, our man gets a job, finds lodgings and settles into a routine. He's cautious, he's wary of possibly being followed or being the subject of unwanted curiosity. He makes friends with his boss at the diner, who likes his ideas and his reliability. Bill seems to settle. There is a growing friendship with the divorced librarian. Dinner soon followed by sleepovers. He buys a car, he discusses an offer to buy the diner and he's making plans for a future in the town.

If this was a fairy tale, they'd all live happily ever after, but this is Lawrence Block. Bill has his secrets; secrets that not even he fully knows, but he has his suspicions......

Superb in every way..... character, setting, pacing, an ever increasing tension infused with hints of paranoia. As soon as it finished, I was half tempted to start it over again. Genius Block.

5 from 5

I've read Lawrence Block many time before. I only wished I had discovered him ten years earlier than I eventually did!

Read in December,
Published - 2016
Page count - 97
Source - Kindle Unlimited
Format - Kindle

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like Block at his best, Col, and that's exceptional. Glad you enjoyed this as well as you did.

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    1. Margot - he's on top form here. Just squeezed into my books of the year!

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  2. You convinced me, I went and bought a copy. Hope to read it soonish.

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    1. Cool - I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I did, which will still be a lot!

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  3. You have certainly convinced me of Block's joys over the past year or so. Sounds excellent.

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