The Burglar in the Rye: The New Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery - Softcover

Block, Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451198476 ISBN 13: 9780451198471

Publisher: Signet, 2000

Synopsis

A bookseller who moonlights as a burgler, Bernie Rhodenbarr is hired by lovely Alice Cottrell to steal back letters sent from reclusive author Gulliver Fairborn to his former literary agent, who wishes to sell them at auction. Reprint.

About this title

Review

Lawrence Block is such a gifted writer that even a native New Yorker will be fooled into thinking that the Paddington Hotel, described in the opening pages of Burglar in the Rye, is a real institution. Block's descriptions of this enclave of artists, writers, and rock musicians is thoroughly convincing--although in actuality, the Paddington is a combination of the real-life Chelsea Hotel and Block's outrageous imagination.

This is Bernie Rhodenbarr's ninth heist. Bernie is a gentleman burglar who runs a used bookstore in between criminal acts, steals mostly from the rich, and only hurts people when it becomes absolutely necessary.

The Paddington is where Bernie goes to liberate the letters of a reclusive writer named Gulliver Fairborn from a literary agent. Fairborn's resemblance to J.D. Salinger and, of course, the fact that the woman who hired Bernie to steal the letters had an affair with Fairborn when she was a teenager, no doubt lend the book its title. But by the time Bernie gets to the Paddington, the agent has been shot, the letters already liberated--and a cop in the lobby recognizes our favorite burglar from a previous encounter.

Now all Bernie has to do is find out who else wanted those letters badly enough to kill for them. In typical Rhodenbarr tradition, the plot is less interesting than the trappings: the books Bernie reads, the fascinating objects he picks up along the way. The reader also learns about some mind-expanding facts, such as the existence of a tiny South American fish that swims up a man's urine stream and lodges in his private parts! Or did Block make that up, too?

Other Bernie picks include: The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, and The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza. --Dick Adler

From the Back Cover

Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller by day, burglar by night, is on the prowl again. Pretty Alice Cottrell has hired him to infiltrate the crumbling old Paddington Hotel and steal back the letters of reclusive author Gulliver Fairborn from his once-upon-a-time agent, who now wishes to sell them at auction. Seems like an easy enough job, until Bernie discovers the letters missing -- and the agent dead in her bed. With the police only footsteps behind him, Bernie's got to make a fast escape or take the rap for a murder he didn't commit.

Only then does Bernie begin to wonder if he's been set up by a criminal -- one who is almost as clever as he is.

Edition details

• Publisher: Signet
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451198476
• ISBN 13: 9780451198471
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 320