Hit Man/Hit List

By Lawrence Block
I can't remember the last time I discovered a new writer through a book.  Especially not a book written on bits of dead tree. Still reading,  rather faster than I'm writing them up for here,  but I'm just not picking up the odd speculative paperback like I used to.
Where I am starting with new writers it's through podcasts,  particularly Starshipsofa and its entourage.
One of these podcasts launched a few months ago with a rather fine story by Block about a hit man hired ostensibly to kill an especially annoying dog. Nice story. Enough to make me hunt down more of the same.
The first is a collection of short stories,  the second has far more narrative, but still does it's short fiction roots. Surprisingly light,  all told with an appealing deadpan sense of humour. On the list of writers to come back to.
The thing that's bugging me though,  and no answer is available,  is whether these were books my late grandfather read. He did read American crime fiction, lots of it, and while he wouldn't have been about for these books, too recent, Block's been writing for ever. Perhaps there were shelf loads of them, making him a writer I really should have been reading for decades.