The often humorous tone of the books is reflected in their titles, such as puns (The Cancelled Czech and The Scoreless Thai) or cultural references (Me Tanner, You Jane).
The 2023 compilation The Naked and the Deadly:[3] includes two "book bonuses", or condensed previews, of Blocks's Tanner novels which were featured in 1960s 1960's adventure magazines.
Tanner is known to have fought in the Korean War when his brain's sleep center was destroyed by a stray piece of shrapnel, making him a permanent insomniac.
He fills his time productively by reading voraciously, learning multiple languages, and, among other activities, charging stiff fees to write term papers, dissertations, and other documents for college students.
He is also very good at "coming across money", so when he meets a black-haired woman whose grandmother has fantastic tales of a fortune in European gold hidden under her front porch in a war-torn country, he embarks on a profitable journey.
As one of their men, he must "cancel" a Czech who was a former Nazi, smuggle twelve female Olympians, one princess, and a defector aboard a Soviet fighter plane to America, end a sexual slavery ring, and rescue a cannibal named Jane from Africa.
Posing as a butterfly hunter, he himself is netted by bandits, makes a deal with a horny young man, gets lost in the malaria-filled jungle, and starts a little war.
When he came back home, he found that it was occupied by his adopted daughter, Minna, the rightful heir to the Lithuanian throne, now fully grown.