LAWRENCE BLOCK – Grifter’s Game. Hard Case Crime, paperback, September 2004. Originally published as Mona, Gold Medal s1085, paperback original, 1961. Also: Carroll & Graf, pb, 1994; Five Star, hardcover, 1999.

   Joe Marlin is a con man, small-time thief and borderline gigolo. He lives a detached, drifting life, spending most of his time in nice hotels with plenty of liquor and willing, vacationing women — as well as the relative novelty of air conditioning.

   After he falls hard for Mona Brassard, everything changes. Without giving anything else away, the writing is only workmanlike, but this book has one of the most brutal, psychologically horrifying conclusions ever — without a drop of blood being spilled.

Editorial Comment:   My own review of Mona appears here earlier on this blog. From what I read now of what I wrote then, some 32 years ago, I had the same reaction to the ending as Tina has.