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A review by ericbuscemi
The Burglar in the Library by Lawrence Block
4.0
I have recently been burying myself in detective/mystery classics. In the last month, I've read Raymond Chandler's [b:The Big Sleep|2052|The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)|Raymond Chandler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1371584712l/2052._SY75_.jpg|1222673], Dashiell Hammett's [b:The Maltese Falcon|29999|The Maltese Falcon|Dashiell Hammett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689040081l/29999._SY75_.jpg|980184], and Agatha Christie's [b:And Then There Were None|16299|And Then There Were None|Agatha Christie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1638425885l/16299._SY75_.jpg|3038872] and [b:Murder on the Orient Express|16304|Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)|Agatha Christie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388267702l/16304._SY75_.jpg|2285570].
So when I got wind that Block, a writer whose work I enjoy, wrote a book where his burglar protagonist, Bernie Rhodenbarr, attempts to steal a first-edition copy of The Big Sleep inscribed to [a:Dashiell Hammett|16927|Dashiell Hammett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1287255332p2/16927.jpg], only to get caught up in an [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg] type murder-mystery in an English country house during a blizzard, I couldn't pass it up.
Even Rhodenbarr's cat is a literary allusion — named after [a:E.W. Hornung|26514|E.W. Hornung|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1248541677p2/26514.jpg]'s gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. But I digress.
This story is, despite the murders, a light read that delights in hanging lampshades on many detective/mystery tropes. While the pace dragged a tiny bit in the middle, and the story jarred me with a switch from first to third-person at one point, it was, overall, a very fun, enjoyable read I would definitely recommend to mystery fans familiar with the above classics.
So when I got wind that Block, a writer whose work I enjoy, wrote a book where his burglar protagonist, Bernie Rhodenbarr, attempts to steal a first-edition copy of The Big Sleep inscribed to [a:Dashiell Hammett|16927|Dashiell Hammett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1287255332p2/16927.jpg], only to get caught up in an [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg] type murder-mystery in an English country house during a blizzard, I couldn't pass it up.
Even Rhodenbarr's cat is a literary allusion — named after [a:E.W. Hornung|26514|E.W. Hornung|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1248541677p2/26514.jpg]'s gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. But I digress.
This story is, despite the murders, a light read that delights in hanging lampshades on many detective/mystery tropes. While the pace dragged a tiny bit in the middle, and the story jarred me with a switch from first to third-person at one point, it was, overall, a very fun, enjoyable read I would definitely recommend to mystery fans familiar with the above classics.