HarperCollins is reprinting Lawrence Block’s classic mystery series featuring professional burglar and rare bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr, and THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY shows Bernie at his best, nicking up to a fancy bed and breakfast in order to nick a rare signed association copy of Raymond Chandler’s THE BIG SLEEP.
Bernie has found out about the book with a bit of literary research, and he is sure the owners of the B&B don’t know what they have. On his first night there, he spots the book and is determined to steal it. But then a dead body shows up. And then another. And so on.
As the corpses mount, Bernie and all the inhabitants of the inn realize that they are cut off from civilization. Snow is falling at the rate of two feet a day, phone lines are out, and the one bridge from the inn’s grounds to the main road has been destroyed. It’s turning into a very bad and deadly parody of an old school English murder mystery.
The Rhodenbarr books aren’t for everyone. Unlike the gritty realism of Block’s Keller hitman series, these books are much more jokey. They’re quick and punchy – a hoot to read, with rapid-fire dialogue like Nick and Nora Charles, colored with cultural referents that could be used as an aesthete’s learning guide.
But they also have huge plot holes, and lapses of realism. That’s not the point, though. The point is to go along for the ride, see what crazy objet d’art Rhodenbarr is lusting after, see how he manages to get it, and to witness his deft extrication from the mess. It’s a light comedic farce, and on that level, impeccably done up to Block’s usually high standards. –Mark Rose
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BURGLAR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BOGART by Lawrence Block
• THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block
• LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block
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