Block, a prolific writer of detective and mystery novels, enlisted 16 other writers to produce a short story based on their viewing of an Edward Hopper (1882-1967) painting.  Drawn from the collections of the Whitney Museum, Yale Art Gallery, Des Moines, the Art Institute, the Hirshhorn, Indianapolis Museum of Art, MOMA, U. of Nebraska, The Walker Center, a museum in Madrid and several private collections, some of these Hopper paintings are famous (Nighthawks, Rooms by the Sea (my own personal favorite!), Automat, Hotel Room) and some are little known.  The authors, also a combination of the famous (Stephen King, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Joyce Carol Oates, Craig Ferguson) and the little known (though heavily awarded with Edgar and Poe Awards and other signs of prowess in the field of mysteries), wrote stories inspired by their viewing of the painting.  Mostly noir and offbeat, the stories are generally excellent and emphasize Mark Strand’s comment about Hopper’s paintings:  “saturated in suggestion.”