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woody1881's review against another edition
5.0
Bernie is back. He could make a living selling used books at his bookstore, but he admits he lacks the passion for that success. He is truly a great burglar, but he sure has a lot of bad luck with people being dead in close proximity to him.
Lawrence Block is likely the only writer I can think of that could write obituaries with a twist and an unexpected ending. Bernie Rhodenbarr is one of my favorite characters. I love all of his books though.
Lawrence Block is likely the only writer I can think of that could write obituaries with a twist and an unexpected ending. Bernie Rhodenbarr is one of my favorite characters. I love all of his books though.
vorpalblad's review
4.0
Bernie is back, and this time, he has fewer twists to deal with, which is actually a nice change. Everything comes together and I didn't find myself flipping back through the pages wondering what I had missed.
ogreart's review against another edition
4.0
These novels are more than a little addictive. I was able to figure out one of the mysteries almost immediately, but that did not diminish the fun for me. I love the little nods he gives to other mystery writers in these books.
whistlertrue's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
disastrouspenguin's review
4.0
Continuing my impression of cute but dated, these mysteries draw me in and entertain but don't cause any nail-biting, which is exactly what I want sometimes.
zeroiv's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
usbsticky's review
4.0
Lawrence Block is like an old friend now, some of the stuff he does irritates you but you still hang out. That's how I feel about his books, some of the writing annoys me but I don't let it bother me anymore.
Spoilers ahead:
This is my 3rd Bernie book and it appears they all have the same formula. Bernie does a job and he's framed for something else. In this case he burgles an empty home. He finds that a set of burglars have already come and stolen a lot of stuff. But the safe has been left untouched so he cracks that and comes away with just a few items but one of them is a very rare American 1913 V-nickel. Only 5 of them were ever minted, possibly by mistake.
He takes his burgled items to Abel Crowe a fence who deals in rare items like jewelry, coins and stamps, who agrees to take the rare coin on consignment. The next day Bernie gets a visit from his friendly local policeman Ray who has advised him that the homeowner and his wife came home to a burglary in progress and the 2 burglars killed the wife. Bernie is suspected as the killer by the police and taken to the station but the homeowner fails to identify him as the killer. (I don't remember why the cops would suspect him.)
Bernie is released and was going to see Abel but Abel is killed in a home invasion robbery. Bernie is suspected of this as well but Ray knows that Bernie is a burglar and shies away from killing.
There are a lot of questions such as: who are the 3rd set of burglars, what happened to the coin, who knew that Abel even had the coin? He gets a series of mysterious phone calls from someone who wants to buy the coin from him. Who knew that he was the burglar? (That part is never explained.) A "grand-daughter" of Abel also shows up and Abel has never mentioned one.
Bernie decides to investigate. We are shown Bernie doing his due diligence but we are kept in dark as to the results or reasoning. Finally, a whole bunch of people are invited to Abel's funeral and Bernie walks us through his reasoning and points out the whole line of reasoning.
Overall quite a light if mentally unchallenging read. Block tries to make the book light-hearted or comedic by injecting cutesy dialog between the characters but it's cringy instead. However, I do like the characters or have begun to like them because they are nice people. The plot advances quite quickly and there are no slow parts except for the stretched dialog between characters but I've learned to fast read those. I also learned a lot about the 1913 v-nickel and I enjoyed that! Now on to the next in the series!
Spoilers ahead:
This is my 3rd Bernie book and it appears they all have the same formula. Bernie does a job and he's framed for something else. In this case he burgles an empty home. He finds that a set of burglars have already come and stolen a lot of stuff. But the safe has been left untouched so he cracks that and comes away with just a few items but one of them is a very rare American 1913 V-nickel. Only 5 of them were ever minted, possibly by mistake.
He takes his burgled items to Abel Crowe a fence who deals in rare items like jewelry, coins and stamps, who agrees to take the rare coin on consignment. The next day Bernie gets a visit from his friendly local policeman Ray who has advised him that the homeowner and his wife came home to a burglary in progress and the 2 burglars killed the wife. Bernie is suspected as the killer by the police and taken to the station but the homeowner fails to identify him as the killer. (I don't remember why the cops would suspect him.)
Bernie is released and was going to see Abel but Abel is killed in a home invasion robbery. Bernie is suspected of this as well but Ray knows that Bernie is a burglar and shies away from killing.
There are a lot of questions such as: who are the 3rd set of burglars, what happened to the coin, who knew that Abel even had the coin? He gets a series of mysterious phone calls from someone who wants to buy the coin from him. Who knew that he was the burglar? (That part is never explained.) A "grand-daughter" of Abel also shows up and Abel has never mentioned one.
Bernie decides to investigate. We are shown Bernie doing his due diligence but we are kept in dark as to the results or reasoning. Finally, a whole bunch of people are invited to Abel's funeral and Bernie walks us through his reasoning and points out the whole line of reasoning.
Overall quite a light if mentally unchallenging read. Block tries to make the book light-hearted or comedic by injecting cutesy dialog between the characters but it's cringy instead. However, I do like the characters or have begun to like them because they are nice people. The plot advances quite quickly and there are no slow parts except for the stretched dialog between characters but I've learned to fast read those. I also learned a lot about the 1913 v-nickel and I enjoyed that! Now on to the next in the series!
ferrisscottr's review against another edition
4.0
Everyone's favorite cat burglar is back in this 4th book in the series.
Running the bookstore doesn't seem to provide enough excitement for Bernie and he winds up pulling a job, but things (as they always do with Bernie) take a crazy turn when he finds out he's not the only one robbing the couple on this particular night. People wind up dead, Bernie gets blamed and seems the only thing he can do is to find out who committed the murders.
Great characters work, tight plot, page turner and of course nobody writes NYC like Block does.
Very good addition to the series - Recommended.
Running the bookstore doesn't seem to provide enough excitement for Bernie and he winds up pulling a job, but things (as they always do with Bernie) take a crazy turn when he finds out he's not the only one robbing the couple on this particular night. People wind up dead, Bernie gets blamed and seems the only thing he can do is to find out who committed the murders.
Great characters work, tight plot, page turner and of course nobody writes NYC like Block does.
Very good addition to the series - Recommended.
bundy23's review
4.0
The best in the series so far but Bernie Rhodenbarr has now been involved in 4 burglaries that have all ended up with him framed for murder and then having to solve the case all by himself so you'll need to be prepared to suspend a lot of disbelief if you're thinking of entering this world. Rhodenbarr is much more likeable than Poirot or Miss Marple though, so that's a positive.