Heard Another: "Deadly Honeymoon" by Lawrence Block

Heard Another: Deadly Honeymoon by Lawrence Block, 1967 (original), Overdrive download.

I had just listened to a Block novel and was hesitant to try another book of his but I did so anyway. As I listened I wondered what the pub date because of talk about typewriters, newspapers, politics, and sex before marriage. I searched online and found a couple blog posts. One is at Violent World of Parker. Another was at Vintage Hardboiled.

A neat thing about this is that Block took the original idea from Don Westlake. Block and Westlake were visiting one evening and Westlake said he had a story idea: Two honeymooners in a cabin are trapped by killers who rape the woman and beat the man. The couple want revenge. Block had the story idea stuck in his head and a few years later Block asked Westlake if he was doing anything with the idea. Westlake said "No," so Block wrote a novel.

Anyhoo. Two honeymooners are staying in a remote cabin when a couple killers rape the woman and beat the man. The couple go out for revenge.

Eh. What the hell. That's enough description. Follow the above links for more plot.


Comments:
1.At one point someone says, "What time is it?" The answer is "4:30."



2. Wife does not want to talk to the police after the rape. Together they decide to go after the two hitmen. They don't quite know what they are doing and they are aware of their amateur status. They're making things up as they go along and have a lot of trust in one another after such a brief courtship and brand new marriage.
3. Here's a paraphrase of one of their discussions:
Husband: He'll be sandbagging us.
Wife: What's that mean, "sandbagging"?
Husband: I don't know. I heard it on TV.
4. The novel has the feel of a Westlake novel. With a step-by-step and trial-and-error search to find the killers.