Crime writer Lawrence Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, has published hundreds of books, winning multiple best novel awards.
Getting Off is a mixed genre novel that I found not so successful, but it does deliver on the subtitle "A novel of Sex and Violence" - you will get it in abundance.
Among his many titles over several genres and under several pseudonyms, Block wrote seven soft core lesbian pulp novels under the name Jill Emerson in the 1960's, and Getting Off is presented as 'Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson'. This reads like fragments from those days, updated with a crime spree - entertaining, but the road was too bumpy for me.
She grew up a Katherine, but rarely uses the same name twice. No matter remembering names, the men she seduces in the lounge or bar will only be used for sex before she drugs and kills them. A nasty habit she has no intention of breaking. Whatever money they have will keep her going to the next town, another job, another man, another corpse. Random, until the idea strikes her - there are only 5 men in her sexual history that for various reasons lived to tell. So, she begins to hunt each down; perhaps when they are all dead, she will feel purified, fresh again. Not so easy when one is still in prison, another a hospitalized burn victim veteran. The underlying reason for her violent behaviour is explored as she crosses the names off her list.
Kirkland, WA is her next stop, where she rents a room and befriends homeowner Rita. Soon, their flirtatious banter turns into mutual masturbation and a budding romance. As she kills off all the men who she sleeps with, does that include the women? That's answered when a swinging couple pick her up with plans to kill her after sex - unless she can beat them to it.
Living a careless life of flirting, drugging, fucking, and killing, is there going to be a happy ending?
I'm not opposed to serial sex murders, or to lesbians getting off on mutual masturbation, but this seemed like Katherine herself wasn't taking it too seriously, despite the stone cold balls needed to complete her plan. No question Block is a terrific writer and dynamite characters in awkward settings still have the power to entertain.
From the cover, you know what you are getting into - heavy sex with expletive-laden raw violence, with a healthy dose of fingering.
Recommended only for that crowd.
Several soft core novels by Jill Emerson have been reprinted, and the works of Lawrence Block continue to remain cornerstones of crime fiction.
2011 / Hardcover / 335 pages
I read about one serial killing woman and did not enjoy it because of the author's tendency to present her as some sort of victim/ goddess. This does not seem like it but not for me.
Neeru