Borderline by Lawrence Block

I wonder if Juarez and El Paso were inspirations for George Lucas when he created the town of Mos Eisley as the two border towns are both wretched hives of scum and villainy.

Seeing the public eye for the first time in over fifty years, and released through renowned publisher Hard Case Crime, Borderline (originally published as Borderlust) is crammed with sex and violence.  Block’s dirty and dangerous drama fits well within the publisher’s vision of hard-hitting stories and sleazy players.

The main story, Borderline, shifts perspective among five less than admirable characters: a successful gambler, a rich divorcee looking for a good time, a down on her luck drifter, a sex-crazed lesbian and a serial killer.  While the story itself is dripping with sexual content, the real fun comes in guessing when and where these five will eventually intersect with one another.

Alongside Borderline, there are three additional short stories that make up the rest of the content.  While two of the three stories only share a few dozen pages, the final story is about seventy pages in length and I liked that one the best of the bunch – a classic murder mystery that had me guessing until the end.

Since its launch a few years back, Block has become a staple of the Hard Case Crime brand and with the positive reception for Borderline, Block was inspired to pen another standalone crime novel that publisher will release in late 2015 titled, The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes.  Can’t wait!