Bernie Rhodenbarr has gone legit — almost — as the new owner of a used bookstore in New York’s Greenwich Village. Of course, dusty old tomes don’t always turn a profit, so to make ends meet, Bernie’s forced, on occasion, to indulge in his previous occupation: burglary. Besides which, he likes it.
Now a collector is offering Bernie an opportunity to combine his twin passions by stealing a very rare and very bad book-length poem from a rich man’s library.
The heist goes off without a hitch. The delivery of the ill-gotten volume, however, is a different story. Drugged by the client’s female go-between, Bernie wakes up in her apartment to find the book gone, the lady dead, a smoking gun in his hand, and the cops at the door. And suddenly he’s got to extricate himself from a rather sticky real-life murder mystery and find a killer — before he’s booked for Murder One.
Bernie hits his stride in this third “Burglar” caper For many readers of Block’s burglar series, this is where it all really begins: THE BURGLAR WHO LIKED TO QUOTE KIPLING introduces Bernie’s used bookstore; his comrade-at-arms and partner in crime, Carolyn Kaiser; the series’ highbrow “celebrity” titles; and the concept of going after a prize of more than monetary value. Here it’s a lost poem by Rudyard Kipling, and before the adventure is finished, the rare manuscript will be found, lost, and found again. Block manages to produce a…
Third in the series is the best so far! This is the third of eight novels in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series by author Lawrence Block who has written many other novels. I was first introduced to Bernie when I picked up a copy of “The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams.” Bernie gets himself into again. It wouldn’t be a “Burglar who…” book if he didn’t. This time he’s involved with a lost Rudyard Kipling poem. The manuscript is lost and found several times before the “case” is solved. Bernie is drugged and…
Bernie, the Bookman, Buys In Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, “honest” person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn’t proud of what he does, doesn’t like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing valuables. As you can see, there’s a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in…