This is what I read last week … Burglars Can’t Be Choosers … Lawrence Block’s gentleman burglar, Bernie Rhodenbarr’s first outing …

I came across the name Lawrence Block when I was looking for Michael Connelly’s short stories featuring Bosch.  This was a story called Nighthawks that was included in an anthology of stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper called In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper.  This anthology was edited by Lawrence Block and I was happily surprised by a book full of stories inspired by the paintings of a single artist!!  Here Bosch appears in the story, Nighthawks, inspired by Hopper’s painting of the same name.  I wanted to buy this book; the book was available, but very expensive and I kept visiting amazon in the hope that the price would come down or the book would appear in a used books portal.  So, Lawrence Block was on the radar and then recently, I saw that there was another book, similar in concept, also edited by him – Alive in Shape and Color: 17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired.  Both books have this heady combination of literature and painting, and I was fascinated by this whole idea.  It was then that I wanted to find out more about Lawrence Block. 

 

And this was like entering some sort of treasure cave … there was so much detective and crime fiction that Block has written and so much variety and so many different series’ and characters that I began to wonder if this was the same Block who edited those two books. 

I was intrigued by all these characters, but Bernie Rhodenbarr, the gentleman burglar, fascinated me the most.  I wanted to start from the first in the series and started with Burglars can’t be Choosers.  

Bernie is such a lovely chap and the way things happen in this book is so engaging that I finished this in real good time.  He is a ‘talented’ burglar, of course, but he lifts valuable stuff and money only from the rich, with the firm belief that the poor have nothing worth stealing.  He doesn’t steal in his own building or locality, and so he is a good neighbour, though his neighbours have an inkling of his profession.  He is a freelancer, but in this book, he accepts an assignment, that too from a total stranger.  Bernie has to lift an item from a wealthy man’s apartment.  There was supposed to be payment for the job.  The cops dash in while Bernie is still on the job, and one of the cops finds a corpse in the bedroom, of which Bernie has no idea.  Interesting, no?  He pushes away a policeman and rushes out of the apartment. 

Now, the police have declared him the murderer.  To clear his name, Bernie has to find the murderer, and for that he has conduct his own investigation.  And he has to evade the police.  He gets help from some known and some unknown sources.  Lots of witty dialogues, repartees, and puns.  Bernie is a learned fellow.  The clever and droll use of language adds to the humour of the situation.  Oh, it was a great read.  I picked up the second in the series soon afterwards …