Just my opinion, of course, but I'd rank them as follows:

A TOUCH OF DEATH
BRANDED WOMAN
THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN
BLACKMAILER
THE LAST MATCH

The Goodis is the best written, but has a sort of dated fascination with repressed memories and frigidity and goes odd places at the end. Otherwise, I'd rate it #1.

I reviewed The Last Match. It's good, not great.

I didn't care for Branded Woman. Haven't read the others you listed.

Of those, I've only completely read The Wounded and the Slain (currently in the middle of The Blackmailer). It's very good. One of my favorites in fact.

Thanks Meglos and MillaC. I guess I will start with "The Wounded and the Slain". You both had positive things to say about that. It was really between that one and "The Branded Woman".

And djmont thanks for the review. I hope you write one for "The Branded Woman" when you're done reading it. I would be interested to hear what you think. I am planning on reading that one next.

Thanks again.

Sorry, I gave up on The Branded Woman, so I won't be reviewing it. (This was quite a while ago.)

Here's my 2 cents:

Anything by Lawrence Block is great.
Top of the Heap was top notch.
Two For the Money dragged a bit for me.
The Confession just wasn't my cup of tea.
Branded Woman was okay.
Straight Cut was unnecessarily long. I thought it would never end.

For those of you who like to be the first on your block with the latest HCC release, Songs of Innocence is starting to hit shelves now. I found a copy at B&N.

I've probably said this already, but you know what I love most about these books? The fact that you're sucked right in from the very beginning. I opened Little Girl Lost right before bed last night and ended up reading 60 pages before I knew it. This book's fantastic.

As a side note, I noticed that with this one, it's a little weird to hear "Internet" and "Google" thrown around. I was so used to reading old novels that I keep assuming this doesn't take place in modern times.

I felt the same thing initially. And of course it continues in Songs of Innocence. So this would fall into the neo-noir category. But hey, as long as you got the theme and voice down, you're aces. And "Aleas" has really got it goin'. I'm about 50 pages into Songs, and I love the way Aleas makes the mystery personal for John Blake--in both books. Good stuff.

I thought The Wounded and the Slain was the weakest out of the ones I've read. It wasn't bad, but it just didn't grab me like some of the others.
Branded Woman falls somewhere in the middle of the pile.

My favorites so far are
Little Girl Lost
Grave Descend
The Vengeful Virgin

I'm reading Songs of Innocence now and it looks like another winner.

I finished Little Girl Lost yesterday. Very good read (even though I called the end early on). It's only the 4th Hard Case Crime book I've read, but probably my favorite so far.

I enjoyed The Branded Woman, and don't get why it's getting a bad rap here. Fade to Blonde was great. And I enjoyed Stephen King's Colorado Kid to a degree, but think the story was a mismatch with this publisher.