Lawrence Block is arguably the best pulp writer currently abusing a typewriter, at it for years, banging out book after book of decent, solid stuff. The Burglar in The Library is the latest entry in his best, most well-known series. Bernie Rodenbarr is a burglar and book dealer with a real Mondrian on his bedroom wall. He stole it. And now he intends to steal a first edition of The Big Sleep, the ultimate association copy, dedicated from Chandler himself to Dashiell Hammett. He spies it immediately in the titular library, but too soon stumbles into the middle of something big -- a something big that includes murder.

The Burglar in The Library is a full-on parody of the traditional country house mystery, with its snowed-in location, full cast of colourful misfits, and dark doings in even darker corridors. And as such, while far from earth-shattering, it makes for a pleasingly teasing read, fulfilling its mystery dictates while gently sending them up. Light but droll, knowing and not unlikeable. Wait for the paperback.

Two For Tanner follows yet more trans-continental capers of Evan Tanner, adventurer and sometime-spy. There’s shrapnel in his skull that prevents him sleeping; all the more time for trouble. In this 1968 reprint he’s in Thailand on the trail of a US jazz combo (don’t ask) who have fallen into the hands of local communist rebels. It’s comic, violent and, fortunately, short, because the Tanner novels really are the least of Block’s oeuvre. They have a certain energetic plotting and pure pulp-appeal, but remain very much of their time. Which explains why he’s just finished a brand new one. Nice covers though.

And finally there’s Orion’s second anthology of Matt Scudder novels. There are three in here -- A Stab In The Dark, Eight Million Ways To Die (made into a right ropy movie), and When The Sacred Ginmill Closes -- and represent Block at his darkest and most sombre. Much better than the Tanner books, this brick-size collection of ex-alcoholics and underworld sleaze comes recommended as a value for money introduction to Scudder’s world.