"It is, I should point out, not a career I would recommend for anyone. The fact that I evidently can't give it up doesn't mean I'm not well aware of the disagreeably sordid nature of what I do."
When a friend suggests that Bernie Rhodenbarr burglarize a romantic rival's home, Bernie is happy to oblige. For him, burglary is more than a career, it's his favorite hobby. Along with lesbian friend Caroline Kaiser, Bernie is overjoyed to find a safe full of cash—cash for which income taxes had not been paid and for which a police report is unlikely. And for once in a Bernie Rhodenbarr story, there isn't even a dead body in the house. At least not yet. Because a nearby home had also been burglarized and in that robbery, three people had died. The police recognize Bernie from a nearby bank ATM camera and soon he's in the newspapers as the suspect.
A good lawyer soon gets Bernie out of jail, but he isn't out of trouble. Because criminals read the newspapers and now they think that Bernie has whatever was missing from the robbery gone bad. Unless Bernie can come up with the truth, he's in for some serious trouble from some very bad people. Fortunately, Bernie is good at finding the truth. Better yet for Bernie, an incidental burglary leads to a relationship with a beautiful lawyer. If he can stay alive long enough to enjoy it, he's got it made
'Lawrence Block's language - is dry and droll and elegant, like how Dashiell Hammett would write if he was still doing the Thin Man books today'
- The Guardian [read the full review]
Bernie Rhodenbarr doesn't have to try for hipness, because hip is in the very air he breathes. The Burglar is just
adorable. He is cute without being cuddly, he is witty without looking like he's striving for it, and he is rakish
without possessing a single mean streak in his lithe and sinuous body. And his language - I suppose we should say
Lawrence Block's language - is dry and droll and elegant, like how Dashiell Hammett would write if he was still doing
the Thin Man books today.
The Guardian
'For clean close-to-the-bone prose, the line goes from Dashiell Hammett to James M Cain to Lawrence Block. He's that good'
- Martin Cruz Smith
'A master of crime fiction'
- Jonathan Kellerman
'Block is one of the best '
- Washington Post
'if you are coming new to Lawrence Block.....it will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship'
- Vincent Banville, Irish Times