The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling - Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery Series Book 2 of 11

Lawrence Block

Signet Books Paperback / Mass market paperback

1997

304 páginas

10h 8m

ISBN-13: 9780060731250

Bernie's tried to go legit by opening up a secondhand bookstore down in Greenwich Village but still can't resist his passion: stealing things. Especially when the price is right, and this time it most certainly is. Here's what Bernie's got to do: pilfer a rare Kipling edition and make off with a bundle.
That's the easy part. The hard part, Bernie finds, is returning the priceless volume to his employer. His instructions are to turn the book over to a lovely femme fatale, but before Bernie can, the femme is suddenly a fatality. And of course the cops are close behind.
With best pal, Carolyn, at his side, and a surprising ally found in police detective Ray Kirschmann, Bernie tries to get himself out of the stickiest wrong-side-of-the-law jam of his life. It will take all the tricks and tools of the burgling trade to uncover a clever plot by some very dangerous men. But dangerous is nothing when you're dealing with the hilarious hijinks of Bernie Rhodenbarr.

Kirkus Reviews says: “Has Bernie Rhodenbarr—Manhattan's coolest, calmest, least violent professional burglar—gone straight So it seems; he's now the owner of an antiquarian bookstore down on 11th St. But never fear. That's just a sideline, and Bernie is back to his old tricks, having been hired to steal a one-of-a-kind Kipling rarity (the only surviving copy of an anti-Semitic narrative poem) from a lavish Forest Hills Gardens townhouse. He does so, beautifully, but when he shows up to deliver the goods, he's drugged and wakes to find himself—as usual—framed for murder. So Bernie's on the lam again, hiding out with lesbian chum Carolyn, and tracking down various suspects—the phony who hired him to steal, a Maharajah who's after the Kipling, and the mystery boyfriend of the murder victim (a kinky courtesan). Bernie's narrating sass is as jazzy as ever (always just slightly too smartsy for comfort), with bookish humor mixing in nicely with the burglary lore. So, except for rather too much attention to sidekick Carolyn's lesbian affairs of the heart, it's another slick Rhodenbarr romp, full of blithely stolen cars, giddy plotting, and streetwise Manhattan atmosphere.“

Publishers Weekly says: “Bernie has just opened Barnegat Books, has just got to know his deeply endearing friend, the lesbian dog groomer Carolyn, and is pressed into service to steal a rare book, allegedly a lost anti-Semitic work of Rudyard Kipling. As usual, he finds himself saddled with a dead body and a maze of twisted motives. And also as usual, Block's stylish narrative flow, humor and pitch-perfect feeling for New York life make getting to the end much more fun than the ultimate solution of the mystery. Until then, it's unalloyed pleasure--and, yes, we're ready for another new one.”

And Lawrence Block says: “I knew who Bernie Rhodenbarr was from the first chapter of his first appearance in Burglars Can’t be Choosers. The personality was all in place. But it wasn’t until the third book, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, that he found himself in residence in essentially the same life he’s leading today. It’s in this book that we find him the proprietor of Barnegat Books, an antiquarian bookshop in Greenwich Village where he hopes for literate conversations with personable hyoung women—along with a front for his larcenous after-hours activity. And it’s here that we meet Carolyn, who washes dogs two doors away at the Poodle factory and emerges as Bernie’s lesbian best friend.”