The Burglar on the Prowl - By Lawrence Block Page 0,120

Riga after all.”

“They’ll try. He seems to have pretty good survival instincts, but they’re highly motivated. So we’ll see.”

“Wow,” she said, and leaned back in her chair and stretched like a cat. “Gee, look at the time. I guess we don’t need another round of drinks, do we? We had two already.”

“Three.”

“Really? Was it three?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“It’s funny how you can lose count. Three. You know what that means?”

“No, but I’ll bet you’re about to tell me.”

“It means we had two drinks,” she said, “and then we had a third.”

“So?”

“Two drinks, and then one drink.”

“So?”

“So that one drink seems incomplete, doesn’t it? Because you know my theory about how there’s no such thing as one drink.” She waved a hand, crooked a finger. “Maxine!”

*The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams

* The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian

* The Burglar in the Library

Stolen Goods (E-Book Extras)

Editor’s Note: In the spirit of our beloved burglar, Bernie, this Romp of Rhodenbarria has been lifted from various sources—ranging from the BBC to The Author Himself (or, more precisely, from his delightful website, www.lawrenceblock.com…

Bernie Rhodenbarr by Lawrence Block

A Burglar’s-Eye View of Greed

Lawrence Block on New York

“The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis” (Short Story)

Bernie Rhodenbarr by

Lawrence Block

The Bernie Rhodenbarr series is as light as Matthew Scudder’s is dark. Bernie’s a bookseller by day, a burglar by night. Unlike Matt, who grows and ages, Bernie stays the same lighthearted, youthful fellow throughout. Just like his creator, come to think of it…Consequently, it’s less important to read the Burglar books in order. (I wrote them in order, but I didn’t have any choice.)

Burglars Can’t Be Choosers (1977). Film rights were optioned by Warner Brothers, and the property is being developed for George Clooney, who would make an absolutely wonderful Bernie. HarperCollins published an e-book edition in 2004 as a companion to their e-book edition of Bernie’s latest, The Burglar on the Prowl.

The Burglar in the Closet (1978). This was the source for much of the plot of Burglar, the 1987 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg as Bernice “Bernie” Rhodenbarr.

The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (1979). Winner of the Nero Wolfe Award. This is the book that introduces Carolyn Kaiser as Bernie’s best friend and occasional henchperson, and the first one in which he has the bookstore.

The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza (1980). Bernie walks off with a 1913 Liberty Nickel, one of five in existence.

The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (1983). The Bernie book that featured the most interesting cover art, ‘round the world.

The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams (1994). The first new adventure for Bernie after an eleven-year layoff. Winner of the German Philip Marlowe Award. Ailurophiles will be pleased to note that this is the book in which Bernie meets Raffles the Cat.

Bernie’s appeared in a few short stories. One of them, “The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis,” draws queries from time to time; it’s out on audio and readers wonder if it’s a novel they somehow missed. It first appeared in the collection Some Days You Get the Bear (1994). My e-book editor convinced me to allow him to reprint it in the “special features” section of the 2004 Burglar e-books. Sure, why not?

The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart (1995). Bernie goes to a Humphrey Bogart film festival and—surprise!—falls in love.

The Burglar in the Library (1997). Bernie and Carolyn Kaiser leave New York and wind up snowed-in at a New England country inn. Think Agatha Christie stuck at Fawlty Towers.

The Burglar in the Rye (1999). Suppose some woman had an affair in her youth with an extremely reclusive American writer. And suppose an ex-agent had arranged to sell off the letters the reclusive author had written to her. Of course nothing like that could ever happen in real life, but doesn’t it sound like a job for Bernie Rhodenbarr?

And what’s next for our lad?

The Burglar on the Prowl (2004). Bernie slinks into the twenty-first century and, appropriately, HarperCollins has an e-book edition publishing alongside the hardcover.

—Lawrence Block

A Burglar’s-Eye View of Greed

(Originally published on the op-ed page of Long Island Newsday.)

So I walked over to Barnegat Books on East Eleventh Street for a word with my favorite bookseller, Bernie Rhodenbarr. He was behind the counter with his nose in a book while his cat lay in the window, soaking up the sun. The store’s sole customer was a young woman with multiple piercings who was reading a biography of St. Sebastian.

“I understand the used-book business is hot these days,” I said. “;You must be making money