A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Irene Tursten's short stories in An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed. Col at Col's Criminal Library commented that they reminded him of the Martin Ehrengraf stories by Lawrence Block. I found that a good number of those stories were in a Lawrence Block anthology that I own, Enough Rope. So I read a few of them.
"The Ehrengraf Defense"
Martin Ehrengraf is a defense lawyer but he doesn't spend much time in court. He usually aims at getting his clients declared innocent before the cases reach court. Most of these stories came out in magazines, so each story explains the premise behind Martin Ehrengraf's defense methods. He operates on a contingency basis; he will not get paid if his client is found guilty. And the client will pay his very high fee whether or not it can be proven that Ehrengraf had any part in him/her being set free. His assumption is always that his client is innocent.
In this story, the client's mother hires Ehrengraf, and the story is interesting, but sort of off-putting.
"The Ehrengraf Presumption"
Martin Ehrengraf takes on two cases for the same murder (not at the same time). I liked this one much better.
"The Ehrengraf Experience"
Martin Ehrengraf will use any means necessary to achieve his clients release, and sometimes the results are very chilling.
This one was interesting because stamp collecting comes into the story. Lawrence Block is a serious stamp collector. I know of at least one other character of his that is a stamp collector, Keller, a hit man.
"The Ehrengraf Appointment"
In this case, Ehrengraf takes an appointment from the IDC (Indigent Defense Commission), so he will get a very small fee instead of the usual extravagant fee he usually demands. However, he still plans to work by the same rules. A fellow lawyer makes a wager with him on the outcome of the case, which could potentially add to his monetary intake.
Ehrengraf often quotes poetry in these stories. This time it was "An Epitaph" by Andrew Marvell.
These stories will not necessarily appeal to all those who read short stories, but Lawrence Block can really write, so they are worth a try. I found the four I read a bit too much the same for me, and they would probably be better when read separately. When they were published they came out in different issues of magazines, primarily Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, so they would not normally be read back to back. On the other hand, they were sort of like potato chips; it was hard to read just one. I kept wanting to check out the next story.
There are ten Martin Ehrengraf stories in this book and I was only able to find publication dates for nine of them; they were published from 1978 through 1997.
Some other resources for the Martin Ehrengraf short stories:
- Col's review of Defender of the Innocent, a collection which includes all 12 short stories. The review is of an audio version; the copyright dates of all the stories are listed.
- A review of Enough Rope, the anthology which was the source of the stories I read. The review was by Kevin Burton Smith, and is at January Magazine.
- A review of the 12th story, "The Ehrengraf Fandango," at Kevin Tipple's blog Kevin's Corner.
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