Borderline

A Hard Case Crime Novel

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Mike Dennis

On the border between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico, five lives are about to collide - with fatal results. You'll meet:

• Marty - the professional gambler who rolls the dice on a night with…
• Meg - the bored divorcee who seeks excitement and finds…
• Lily - the beautiful hitchhiker lured into a live sex show by…
• Cassie - the redhead with her own private agenda…
• and Weaver - the madman, the killer with a straight razor in his pocket, on the run from the police and determined to go down swinging!

This is MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block at his rawest and most visceral, a bloody, bawdy, brutal story of passion and punishment - and of lines that were never meant to be crossed - available for the first time in 50 years!

©1962, 2014 Lawrence Block (P)2014 Lawrence Block

Raw.......Gritty......Steamy... A Classic !!!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Fast paced, extremely well written, managing to inter-twin 5 stories and have them all come together at the climax

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

a good plot has you anticipate what will happen and therefore keep you reading to see if you are correct. This book does it in spades !!

What about Mike Dennis’s performance did you like?

Mike does a great job of not overplaying the parts, especially the women's voices. His inflections are easily matched up with the various characters. His short staccato reading of the sentences gives the book the noir feeling perfectly.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes...I finished it in 3 sittings, a personal best .

Any additional comments?

hard hitting , brutal at times, but no over descriptive gore scenes. The reader is left to fill in the blanks.The climax and then a quick Hitchcock ending, no extended denouement.

Sexual, Real,Horrifyingly Brutal Great Dime Novel

Would you consider the audio edition of Borderline to be better than the print version?

The dead pan but easy listening created a feel of a well done voice over Micky Splane story.

What did you like best about this story?

Never realized how impressive the writing was back in the day of the dime novel. Wickedly cool, tauntingly sexual and horrifyingly real thoughts from a moronic serial killer. Eros Pathos and Thanatos (Love, Pain and Death.) It you want it - it is in Borderline.

Which character – as performed by Mike Dennis – was your favorite?

The gambler.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Tag Line might be Late Night Drives to Juarez.

Any additional comments?

Next read "Galveston" Written by 2014 Emmy Award Winning writer Nic P. for True Detectives with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.

Pulp Fiction

Where does Borderline rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fast, lurid and action packed.

What does Mike Dennis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His voice is gritty enough to make the story dark and real. He has an irresistible provocative style making it difficult to stop just anywhere.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

To hear these stories rather than to read them sets the platform for imagining the players. There are three short stories and one of them have an emotional and the other a conspicuous sexual component that link the stories together. "The Stag Girl" is about a couple leading the listener to an anticipation of "will they or won't they". I little dirty, a little dark and plenty fast.

South of the border, down Mexico way.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If that friend is a fan of noir, absolutely. Particularly if said friend enjoys the hard-bitten, road-weary, booze-drenched noir provided by this novel.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Borderline?

The parallel storylines by the disparate characters all added their own tone to the story, but the entire time it was readily apparent they were all on a collision course. I had built up how that inevitable showdown might play out, but when it actually happens--and I hope that detail isn't too much of a spoiler--it defies expectations.

Have you listened to any of Mike Dennis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first time listening to Mike Dennis' narration, and it worked out perfectly that my first encounter with his work should be a Lawrence Block novel. His deep, grizzled drawl was so pitch-perfect, I wonder if he might have done the performance while holding a copy of the novel in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There was a moment late in the book involving a card game that, while I found to be a bit predictable in how it would play out, was pleasantly surprised by the motivation and reasoning behind it. Not so much moving storyline-wise, but in the sense that the author may lead you down a familiar path but still find those overlooked landmarks along the way.

Any additional comments?

Along with the novel, there were a couple bonus short stories thrown in, and those were equally enjoyable too.

Good.

Listening to audio was like the early days of dime paper books,
more subtle of what was happening ,the audio was good. Given audio for my voluntary review

Not the best narration or the best of Block

The narration on this one was sooooo slow and boring. I'm a HUGE Block fan but this one must have been in really early times when he was writing all the smut. I don't mind smut but not the WHOLE storyline. The "story" was hard to follow, too much filler detail not enough substance. Wish I could have returned this one.