From Library Journal
Die-hard Block fans who have read every title in his Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr series will cheer the return of Evan Tanner, the globetrotting, adventurous insomniac who last appeared in Me Tanner, You Jane (1970). Having been in a cryogenic deep freeze in a New Jersey basement for the past 25 years, the newly thawed and well-preserved Tanner (he's 64 but looks 39) discovers that Richard Nixon is no longer president and that his foster daughter Minna, the 11-year-old claimant to the Lithuanian throne, is now a sexy young woman. He also receives another covert assignment, to destabilize the government of Myanmar by assassinating Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel prize-winning Burmese dissident. This being Block country, things go immediately awry; Tanner and Katya, a beautiful Russian exile he encounters in his hotel room, spend the rest of the book trying to escape Burma. Despite the paper-thin plot, readers will enjoy Block's trademark humor and comic characters.
-?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Evan Tanner, the soldier of misfortune who's been out of commission since Me Tanner, You Jane (1970), returns, youthful and hale as ever, for a murky assignment in Burma. Tanner is chilled to the bone, and no wonder: Ever since a tenderhearted activist whose politics didn't square with Tanner's decided to get him out of the picture, he's spent the past 25 years cryogenically frozen. Defrosted, updated--in a series of welcome-to-the-90s vignettes that are the best thing in the book--and restored to his daughter-figure Minna, the Lithuanian royal claimant who's now grown to seem as old as he is, Tanner's ready for another posting at the hands of his old chief. Tanner's ostensible assignment this time is to destabilize the repressive regime in Myanmar (``Burma'' to the retro sensibilities of Tanner and the Chief) by assassinating Aung San Suu Kyi, the housebound Nobel laureate who's the world's most famous dissident, at the behest of billionaire businessman Rufus Crombie, who wants to install a new regime that can buy more American goods. But even before he's politely forbidden from entering Suu Kyi's street, Tanner knows he isn't going to kill her. Unfortunately, it's never entirely clear what he's going to do in Burma instead, other than drink cheap local liquor, get involved with a Eurasian refugee whose ancestors have picked the losing side in every political struggle in the past century, and find a dead man in his hotel bed. Inevitably, Tanner gets picked up by the police, and then at last he's got a mission: to get out of Dodge ahead of the hangman while giving full rein to his creator's matchless gifts as a raconteur. Block (Everybody Dies, 1998, etc.) writes about Burma with the insider's slant of somebody who's spent time there, and with the disenchantment of somebody who doesn't expect to be invited back. Tanner's fans, happy to see him back in action, won't mind if the action doesn't seem to go anywhere in particular. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Even when the fantasy wears thin and the scenery looks like cheesy pasteboard, Block's inventive wit still delights. The whole thing is silly, but yes, it is fun. -- The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
About the Author
Lawrence Block is one of the most widely recognized names in the mystery genre. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and is a four-time winner of the prestigious Edgar and Shamus Awards, as well as a recipient of prizes in France, Germany, and Japan. He received the Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association—only the third American to be given this award. He is a prolific author, having written more than fifty books and numerous short stories, and is a devoted New Yorker and an enthusiastic global traveler.
From The Washington Post
[Block] not only takes one of his most entertaining protagonists out of deep freeze but also scrapes the ice crystals off the neglected subgenre of the espionage caper tale.
It's a rare treat when a talented author can do justice to performing his own work aloud. Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and author of more than fifty novels Lawrence Block narrates this novel with grace and ease. TANNER ON ICE resurrects the hero of THE THIEF WHO COULDN'T SLEEP (1966) in this clever tale of an insomniac soldier of fortune who awakens from a twenty-five-year cryonic slumber to find that he's missed out on Watergate, personal computers, political correctness and the end of the Cold War. What's more, he's tossed headlong into a mystery involving stolen artifacts and revolution in Burma. One wouldn't expect Block's dry, undramatic speaking style to shine in the spoken arts. But he's perfectly matched to his witty writing style, to which he adds excellent pacing and a bohemian tone. S.E.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
