The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons

Starred review from February 9, 2015
“I love to steal,” admits Bernie Rhodenbarr in MWA Grand Master Block’s superlative 11th mystery featuring the New York City thief and bookseller (after 2004’s The Burglar on the Prowl). A man called Smith, who collects buttons as a hobby, launches Bernie on a series of robberies, starting with the manuscript of an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” from a Manhattan museum that was once the home of a wealthy collector of art and artifacts. Smith has other lucrative tasks with button associations for the burglar, including one involving a rare spoon. Meanwhile, NYPD Det. Ray Kirschmann also wants to avail himself of Bernie’s expertise in the puzzling case of an elderly woman found dead on the floor of her apartment in an apparent burglary. Bernie’s sidekick, Carolyn Kaiser, lends support. With his razor sharp wit, Block succeeds in making Bernie’s thievery a noble undertaking. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

January 1, 2014
Block fans who feared the Bernie Rhodenbarr series was finished will rejoice to see that the bookseller-thief lives to steal again! All the usual suspects are backBernie; his lesbian sidekick, Carolyn; and his nemesis/friend, NYPD cop Ray Kirschbaumand all are in fine fettle. The plot wanders a bitfrom a Fitzgerald manuscript through a dead dowager and on to a whole bunch of rare buttonsbut if it's the charismatic Bernie doing the wandering (and peppering his peregrinations with puns of the biblio variety), who really cares? Certainly not anyone who has made Bernie's acquaintance in any of his 10 previous adventures. And, besides, if the multistranded plot seems to be unraveling along the way, it makes the signature finale (borrowed, of course, from Nero Wolfe), when Bernie gathers all the suspects at his bookstore and reveals who dun what, all the more satisfying. Does Block's decision to self-publish Bernie's latest under his own LB imprint suggest that more will be on the way, or that this single LB title will become a bibliographic rarity of special interest to Block collectors (and even, possibly, to a thief with Bernie's literary tastes)?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)