Over the past 55 years, Lawrence Block has written countless stories and short pieces for dozens of magazines. He got his start writing for mystery digests like TRAPPED (Oct 1958 shown above). This checklist covers his short story collections and books he has edited, with just a sample of his innumerable appearances in anthologies.

SOMETIMES THEY BITE – Arbor House, 1983. 1st PB: Jove 1984. Good $5.

LIKE A LAMB TO SLAUGHTER – Arbor House, 1984. 1st PB: Jove 1985.

THE PERFECT MURDER: Five Great Mystery Writers Create the Perfect Crime – Edited by Jack Hitt. With Donald E. Westlake, Peter Lovesey, Sarah Caudwell & Tony Hillerman. Harper Collins, 1991.  

1 st PB: Harper 1992.

SOME DAYS YOU GET THE BEAR – William Morrow, 1993. 1st PB: Avon 1994.

EHRENGRAF FOR THE DEFENSE – ASAP, 1994.

ONE NIGHT STANDS – Crippen & Landru, 1999. Cover by Deborah Miller.

Hardcover. A collection of 25 early stories.  

1st PB: see ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS.

MASTER'S CHOICE – edited by Lawrence Block – Berkley, 1999.

1st PB: Berkley 2001.

DEATH CRUISE – Edited by Lawrence Block – Cumberland House, 1999. Anthology of stories from the International Association of Crime Writers. 

COLLECTED MYSTERY STORIES – Orion (UK), 1999. 1st PB: Orion 2000.

71 stories. See ENOUGH ROPE below.

MASTER'S CHOICE II – edited by Lawrence Block – Berkley, 2000. Anthology includes the story “Sometimes They Bite” by Block. 1 st PB: Berkley 2001.

OPENING SHOTS – edited by Lawrence Block – Cumberland House, 2000.

THE LOST CASES OF ED LONDON – Crippen & Landru, 2001. Cover by Deborah Miller. Hardcover. Three “lost” short novels from MAN'S Magazine 1962-63, unearthed by two Block collectors, Terry Zobeck and some guy named Munroe.

1st PB: See ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST CASES, below.

SPEAKING OF LUST – Cumberland House, 2001. Edited by Lawrence Block. Anthology including title novella by Block. 1st PB:  Crime Express / Five Leaves 978-1-905512-53-9, 2008. Small paperback with Block's novella only. First edition in this format, so something of a paperback original. Although still common, I predict this little paperback will eventually be realized as the collectible it is.

OPENING SHOTS VOL TWO – Edited by Lawrence Block – Cumberland House, 2001.

SPEAKING OF GREED – Cumberland House, 2002. Ed. by Lawrence Block.

ENOUGH ROPE – William Morrow, 2002. 1st PB: Dark Alley 0-06-055967-5, 2003.

Collected Stories of Lawrence Block includes all of SOMETIMES THEY BITE, LIKE A LAMB TO SLAUGHTER, SOME DAYS YOU GET THE BEAR and 24 previously uncollected short stories. US version of the UK book COLLECTED MYSTERY STORIES, but with additional stories. 883 pages.

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS – edited by Lawrence Block – Berkley, 2003.

1st PB: Berkley 2004.

TRANSGRESSIONS: Ten Brand-New Novellas, edited by Ed McBain – Forge, 2005. First appearance of “Keller's Adjustment” by Lawrence Block. VG $5.

1st PB: Forge 0-765-34750-4, 2006. The ten novellas in TRANSGRESSIONS were broken into four separate paperbacks.

MANHATTAN NOIR – Edited by Lawrence Block – Akashic Press, 2006. Softcover.

MANHATTAN NOIR 2 – Edited by Lawrence Block – Akashic Press, 2008. Softcover.

ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS – Harper 978-0-06-158214-1, 2008. Softcover.

Collects all the early stories and novellas from ONE NIGHT STANDS and THE LOST CASES OF ED LONDON. Now if you owned this book and ENOUGH ROPE you had the complete short stories of Lawrence Block. Until…

THE NIGHT AND THE MUSIC – Telemachus Press, 2011. Softcover.

Scudder #18.

The Matthew Scudder Stories all collected in one volume, including a couple appearing here for the first time in book form.

Another recent discovery of a “lost” Lawrence Block short story was “Part of the Job” in the December 1967 issue of DAPPER.  

Mr. Block figures he wrote “Part of the Job” for ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE in 1962 or 1963, but they passed on it and he lost track of it.

His agent, Scott Meredith, must have sold it to DAPPER in 1967, after Block had left the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. Unlike most of the magazines he was writing for in 1962, AHMM is still in print, so he was able to see it published there at last in the March 2012 issue.

WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH! – Edited by Robert Deis, with Josh Alan Friedman & Wyatt Doyle – New Texture, 2012. Softcover.

A collection of stories from men's adventure magazines includes two by Lawrence Block writing as Sheldon Lord: “Just Window Shopping” (from MAN'S, December 1962) and “She Doesn't Want You” (from REAL MEN, June 1958).

CATCH AND RELEASE – Hard Case Crime, September 2013.  Cover by Ken Laager. 16 stories and a stage play.

Scan courtesy of Hard Case Crime.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE
with Lawrence Block stories: Dec 1966, Mar 1967, Apr 1967, Jan 1978 - $5. each.