Customer Reviews

The Burglar in the Rye (Bernie Rhodenbarr Mysteries)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I really, really, really tried to not like Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series. It represents a genre that I usually have no patience for, the comic mystery. I automatically want to dismiss these books as fluf and a waste of time. Yet Block is such a great writer that he can take this formula - a combination of Charlie Chan and Nick and Nora Charles 30's movie conventions - and create contemporary entertainments that work DESPITE the artifical conventions (getting all the usual suspects together at the climax of the story to reveal the murderer), the predictable plot elements (Bernie stumbling onto a body and being wrongly accused of murder), the exaggerated character types (the suspicious half-corrupt cop, the neurotic, lesbian friend etc) and the totally implausible story line. He does this effortlessly by spinning such a bright, charming screen of words that the reader is willing to relax and just go along, knowing that every digression will prove its own reward. Puns, literary allusions, jokes, embedded quotes and every kind of fine verbal slight-of-hand a writer could practice on the reader is used by Block to breath life into the old formula. It works. The reader is quickly seduced by these books and never cares that they are ultimately unbelievable, because they are so much fun.

In The Burgler in the Rye, Bernie Rhodenbarr, burgler and antiquarian bookseller, is asked to recover the letters written to a reclusive literary agent by her even more reclusive main author Gulliver Fairborn (inspired, it seems, by phantom author J.D. Salinger). But lots of people want those letters, and when Bernie's B&E job doesn't find the letters but does uncover a very dead literary agent, the reader knows what is going to happen. How Bernie manages to extricate himself from a charge or murder, take care of several subplots and try to make a profit for himself provides Block plenty of latitude for creative imagination and convenient coincidence. The conclusion is the most convoluted in all the Burgler books I have read, but fun nevertheless. After all, nothing has been really true to life before it, so why fret at the end?

One last word. The dialogue in these books is, I think, more entertaining than in any other series. The running conversations in this one between Bernie and his lesbian, dog-grooming friend Carolyn about whether she is becoming too feminine are really hysterical. This is really fun reading.

Lawrence Block does it, again. This was an Amazon recommendation that hits the mark! I have read all the other "Burglar" books and enjoyed them all. Although I saw alot of the plot coming, Block surprised me with who the killer was...I never guessed this one. This is an enjoyable book with Block's loveable burglar: Bernie Rhodenbarr, friend Carolyn the dog groomer & Ray, the cop. He even brings back Marty from ---Ted Williams. Bernie once, again, brings the suspects together at the scene of the crime (a la Agatha Christies Poirot & Miss Marple) and explains "whodunit" and how. As usual, Bernie makes out like a bandit. Lawrence Block always satisfies with every novel and never misses a beat. Buy, read it, loan it to someone else. If you haven't read Block before, read this one. If you have read his other works...do not miss this one.

Renowned writer Gulliver Fairburn is irate to learn that his former agent Anthea Landau is selling their correspondence on the auction block. Gully relishes his privacy even though his first novel haunted every teen who ever read it. Gully's former lover Alice Cottrell turns to book store owner and thief Bernie Rhodenbarr to steal the letters before they go on sale.

Bernie easily breaks into Anthea's hotel room, only to find her murdered body waiting for him. Bernie flees down the fire escape just ahead of the police, but in time to purloin another guest's necklace. NYPD officer Ray Kirschmann suspects the part time burglar killed Anthea, leaving it up to Bernie to prove otherwise or find a way to insure the cop turns a profit.

The ninth Rhodenbarr mystery is as delightful and refreshing as all the others in the series are. The story line is entertaining as Bernie returns to his favorite profession only to find a corpse on the other side of the locked door he enters. It's not so subtle that only a blockhead would miss the novel's obvious humor and homage to Salinger. Lawrence Block demonstrates why this is one of the most popular series on the market in the past decade.

Harriet Klausner

Reclusive author, Gulliver Fairborn, wants his correspondence back. His ex-agent, Anthea Landau, is selling his letters to Sothbys so they can be auctioned off. However, attractive Alice Cottrel hires Bernie Rhodenbarr to burgle Landau's apartment and retrieve the letters before they can go on the auction block. Of course, when Bernie gets into Landau's apartment the letters are gone and the lady is stone-cold dead.

I've read most of the Burglar series, and as many other reviewers have stated, they are meant to be light reading. I've never enjoyed them as much as Block's Matthew Scudder series but they're not bad. The dialog is sometimes a little too cute but I can live with that. What really bothered me about this one is the identity of the killer. Came right out of left field. This, I feel, is very unfair to the reader. I personally feel at the end of the book you should be able to go back and see where it was logical for the person to be the killer. There should have been clues or something that could have pointed to this person. I didn't find that in this book and I felt let down.

Block always writes well and his characters are predictably quirky. As I mentioned before, the dialog is too cutesy at times but on the whole it's not too bad. The plot up until the end is really pretty good however I got the feeling that Mr. Block painted himself into a corner and wasn't sure how to bring this to a conclusion and thus the lame ending. Oh well. I'll most likely keep reading the Burglar books but I hope this isn't the start of a trend.

I have read all the books in the series. "Burglar in theRye," was well worth the wait for the 9th Bernie "theBurglar," Rhodenbarr caper. Of course it came as no surprise that Bernie is caught and is suspect in murder. Of course his companion, dog groomer, Carolyn is there and so to is Ray "the best cop money can buy." The refreshing novel is a very good read. I was introduced to Lawrence Block when I read "The Thief who Traded Ted Williams," while traveling two years ago. Since then I have read most of Blocks series, novels and collections of sort stories. I am now waiting for the sequel to "Hit Man," due sometime next year. I had the pleasure of meeting Lawrence Block at a book signing a few weeks ago. I found him as charming and interesting as the books he has penned.

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 nonessential valuables from rich people. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. As the series develops, Bernie has a chance to show that he has "ethics" that he follows. Very nice!

So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar in the Rye is the ninth book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart and The Burglar in the Library. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Despite that admonition, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. This is the last book in the series as of now.

The series, always comical and satirical, continues the new turn begun in The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart. The spoof expands to the detective/thriller genre in general. I found this change to be a welcome and charming one. Anyone who is a fan of The Purloined Letter will appreciate the many references to it. The Purloined Letter has been a favorite mystery short story of mine since I was a boy along with The Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deft display of the power of misdirection. Lawrence Block does a fine turn here in showing new ways to redirect attention in this entertaining literary thriller.

So what's it all about? The story is loosely based on the background of one J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. Here, he's called Gulliver (Gully) Fairborn, and his former agent is planning to sell some of his letters, and destroy Fairborn's privacy. A beautiful woman, Alice Cottrell, asks Bernie to retrieve the letters, and Bernie becomes a hotel guest in the Paddington Hotel (themed to Paddington the bear) to give himself an inside edge. The entry into literary agent Anthea Landau's suite goes well, except Bernie finds her dead there. Right behind him are the police, and Bernie's on the run. While escaping, he manages to pick up an interesting item but soon finds himself under suspicion for the murder. Coincidences begin to pile up, and Bernie breaks and enters his way into our hearts with an outlandish scheme to remedy all the wrongs and bring the killer to justice. The resolution has great literary panache of the sort that will leave you chuckling for some time.

Some of the funniest parts of this book are the on-going references to rye. Bernie starts drinking rye rather than Perrier (when he's planning to do a heist) or Scotch (when he's kicking back). He explains how rye bread is made. He reviews folk songs that mention rye. Pretty soon, lots of others are drinking rye too and discussing its merits. Bernie just can't seem to get away from rye! Does that make him a catcher?

The theme of this book focuses on the importance of (and challenges involved in) maintaining privacy. Remember: It's not just celebrities who have this problem!

Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage

When they're well done, books about books, and metafiction, and metacinema, and roman-a-clef writing give me great pleasure. ("Bookworm's Delight," right?) Indeed. This particular Bernie Rhodenbarr book--and, I surmise, the series in general--works at two levels, at least: as a rather straightforward genre whodunnit, but one infused with Block's clever writing and--I found--amusing dialogue (with enough lightly-tossed-off literary allusions to satisfy readers attracted by the book's bookish associations), Bernie Rhodenbarr's attractive "honorable thief" persona, the agreeable NY City 12th-and-Broadway book district locale. The Rhodenbarr book is also a gentle send-up of the whole damn genre, which surely needs sending up from time to time. To discuss at length any particular aspect of the fun Block has in doing so would be to deprive readers of their own pleasures of discovery, so I'll say no more.

What I most enjoyed, however--but what other readers have found particularly objectionable--is Block's use of the JD Salinger-Joyce Maynard materials. Sensing a kindred perspective, I for one am wholly with Block here, having read Maynard's original NY Sunday Times Magazine piece, wondering what the editor could have been smoking when s/he decided to print it, and rankled at how it came to pass that someone more than a decade younger than me--Maynard was 14--could be designated by the authoritative NY Times as the voice of MY generation!!! The nerve. Given my 35-year-old peeve, I LOVED the way Block has worked the Salinger-Maynard story and would, moreover, love to believe his insights were authentically based in fact. Alas, we--or at least I--will never know, but it's fund to conjure.

It's easy to recommend The Burglar in the Rye for the beach, for the airplane, or just as an afternoon's entertainment--yes, it is, in Block's larger oeuvre, an "entertainment" in Graham Greene's sense, as opposed to, say, the Matthew Scudder books, which are darker and more probing--a suitable distraction in a difficult time (exactly my purpose in picking it up), filled with sweetness, light, good cheer, and hardly anything--aside from a chaste lesbian romance--that the Legion of Decency would find objectionable.

Being a mystery writer with my first book in initial publication, I have always been impressed by the diversity of Lawrence Block's talents. He does it all within (and occasionally without)the mystery genre, and THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE is among Block's best Bernie Rhodenbarr books. As always in a Bernie book, Block's tone is light and the mystery is fun. For those who are not yet familiar with Bernie, he is a used book dealer who is known to moonlight as a burglar. In this adventure, he's hired to steal letters written by a literary recluse before the letters are auctioned. We all know the literary figure is based on a certain real-life author the moment we see the title of Block's novel. We also know Bernie will become a murder suspect during the course of the caper. We know too that the best cop money can buy will be investigating the crimes. While these elements are obvious from the start, the book remains a fun and light read. It's a good book, and I recommend it heartily.

No, it's not the next "Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven", but "Burglar in the Rye" is worth a couple days' reading. This book has gotten a lot poor ratings, and the only reason I can think that they gave him 1s and 2s is that they were expecting more. Why? This is Lawrence Block, not J.D. Salinger.

Anyway, the much-maligned dialogue is a staple of Block; either you love it or hate it. The Bernie Rhodenbarr series is intended to be light-hearted, so don't expect major issues to be confronted. Block likes to end the novels in this series with a Nero Wolfe-style group interrogation, and this one is no different. Again, it's fun if you're not expecting high literary merit.

If you're looking for something a little more hard-boiled, I highly recommend Block's Matt Scudder series, which read so differently that you'd swear another author wrote them.

Upon reading Lawrence Block's latest Bernie Rhodenbarr installment, "The Burglar In The Rye", I was once again entrigued by Block's mastery of the genre. I found myself unable to put the book down and finished it within 3 days. His use of strong character contrast and suspenseful plot lead to an electrifying mix of fiction writing that I'd strongly recommend to anyone.