You Could Call It Murder

"A missing person case brings private eye Roy Markham to the remote winter-bound college town of Cliffs End, New Hampshire. But what began as a routine investigation quickly becomes dark and dangerous. Six pornographic photos and a tidy little blackmail scheme result in a brutal and baffling murder, and no one is safe - especially Markham himself."

Thats the product description for Blackstone Audios excellent rendition of You Could Call It Murder, expertly voiced by Peter Berkrot, and we could leave it at that—but theres an interesting backstory to the book, and the Classic Crime Library seems a good place to share it with you.

In 1961, Lawrence Block was living in New York and earning a living writing Midcentury Erotica and crime fiction. Hed just sold his first book under his own name, Grifters Game, to Gold Medal Books. (They insisted on calling it Mona, but the original titles been restored by Hard Case Crime.) His agent got him an assignment to write a tie-in paperback novel for Belmont Books, linked to the TV series Markham, starring Ray Milland.

The book turned out well, and the young writers agent felt it was too good to be a Belmont tie-in. Knox Burger agreed, and Block changed the name of the hero from Roy Markham to Ed London, and Gold Medal published the book as Death Pulls a Doublecross. (Another unfortunate title; youll find the book in the Classic Crime Library with the authors original title, Cowards Kiss.)

But that left Block owing Belmont a book. You Could Call It Murder is what he wrote for them, and it turned out fairly nicely as well, but his agent sent it to Belmont all the same, where they published it as Markham: The Case of the Pornographic Photos. (By the time it came out—surprise surprise—the TV series was canceled.)

Is everything clear?

This Classic Crime Library ebook edition of You Could Call It Murder includes as a bonus the opening chapter of the next book in the series, Cowards Kiss. Isnt it nice how everything comes full circle?