The Burglar on the Prowl

Rating:
Summary: More of the Bernie you know..
Review: Bernie Rhodenbarr, book store owner and part time robber, can't help the impulses and urges that get keep him in the headlights of the local law enforcement. Everyone who's anybody knows that Bernie is never completely out of the game, and when the request comes from a friend to clean out the wall safe of an established rogue, it is not that hard a decision to make. Success comes with careful planning, so prior reconnaissance of the site is a must. But perhaps not a terribly good idea to make an unplanned stop while doing a little forward scouting for the job.



The impulse stops comes in the form of an unknown woman's apartment, and while it was a good idea at the time of entry it rapidly ceases to be so. The occupant returns and Bernie finds himself hiding under the bed, listening to a rape in progress. While it has a bit of a grim beginning, the blip on the morality radar is smoothed over and the story introduces a cast of thousands all somehow connected with a double murder committed in the neighbourhood Bernie is caught appraising on street security cameras. Wrong man, wrong time and Bernie is once again in the thick of it.



"Burglar on the Prowl" is the tenth entry in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series. The self-deprecating wit of Bernie the burglar is the main appeal of this novel, and while the resolution is quite masterful in its complexity, you might find its method of delivery all a bit too hard and serious to take in. Author Lawrence Block proves his versatility in writing a series so different from his other works that you could more easily believe they were crafted by different authors. Don't underestimate the power of a craftily introduced tangent and you'll have fun with this one.







Rating:
Summary: Weakest of the "Burglar" books
Review: Burglar on the Prowl" starts off strong, but loses steam about 2/3 of the way through. Block recycles the "suspects all in the same room" ending from one of the early novels in this series and the the book finishes on a less than satisfying note.

The "Burglar" books have always relied on loose plotting that strains credibility and oddball characters. The smartass humor is there, along with the eccentric oddly named characters, but the result seems labored and seems to recycle elements from past books (names, plot devices); there are even footnoted entries that direct you to other books in the series that explain why he has a Mondrian, etc.

I'd hoped that the long drought since the last "Burglar" book was a good sign, particularly because Block seems to have revived the Scudder series after a series of clinkers. May be the next one will be better........

Rating:
Summary: fun ride
Review: Don't even try to think through this complicated plot involving Latvians, Russians, a plastic surgeon, girls in bars, a mysterious fat man who overpays for a book, etc. Just enjoy the ride. Like all the Burglar series, this book is full of fast action and snappy banter between our hero, Bernie, and his friend Carolyn. In a city of 8 million, the coincidences of people bumping into each other begins to appear to be absurd, but grabs the reader's interest. And Bernie helps out our bumbling cop, Ray, by "pulling a rabbit out of his hat" again in a dramatic showdown, assembling a room full of suspects and interested parties for a complicated explanation that draws out the guilty to expose themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Why I prefer Matt Scudder
Review: Everything Block writes is worth reading, but this is more for the cozy reader. It's a little talky. The plot appears to meander. Only at the end do we see how complex it all is. There are bows to genre which are conventional to the point of spoofy irony--locked room problems, mystification, misdirection, McGuffins, and a resolution before the assembled dramatis personae. That resolution is complex to the point of tedium. It's all done with a great light touch and fully displays Block's skills and powers, but readers whose tastes run to the harder boiled should be warned that this may not be to their liking.

Rating:
Summary: Why I prefer Matt Scudder
Review: Everything Block writes is worth reading, but this is more for the cozy reader. It's a little talky. The plot appears to meander. Only at the end do we see how complex it all is. There are bows to genre which are conventional to the point of spoofy irony--locked room problems, mystification, misdirection, McGuffins, and a resolution before the assembled dramatis personae. That resolution is complex to the point of tedium. It's all done with a great light touch and fully displays Block's skills and powers, but readers whose tastes run to the harder boiled should be warned that this may not be to their liking.

Rating:
Summary: wild Bernie tale
Review: He owns a second hand bookstore in Manhattan and has an antiquarian business on the side but the job he loves best is the one that is against the law. He's a burglar with a heart of gold who doesn't believe in violence and even has a policeman, who knows he breaks the law, as a friend. Over lunch, Marty Gilmartin asks Bernie to rob plastic surgeon Crandall Roundtree Mapes because his girlfriend dumped him for the doctor. Always happy to do a favor for a friend Bernie agrees.

A couple of days before he plans to break into Mape's safe, Bernie has the urge to pull off another burglary but before he is through with the job the resident and her date come home. Bernie hides under the bed while the man is raping the woman who is under the influence of Roofies. The next day, his policeman friend Marty comes to his store and tells him he was spotted on security cameras in the area and a block away, a doorman and two tenants of the building were killed, their safe standing open. There's not enough evidence to hold Bernie and he goes back to his bookstore where a man pays $1300 for a book that is only worth a few dollars. When he runs into the street to give the man his money, a car comes along and kills the man and the driver steals the book. Not long after that Bernie's house is tossed, the thieves obviously looking for something. Bernie, with the help of a few friends decides to find the perpetrator and bring him to justice, hopefully without getting killed.

What makes THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL so exciting is that every crook knows what is being hunted except for Bernie. The protagonist honestly loves the rush of robbing people but he never uses violence and even during a heist doesn't take everything that is valuable and transportable. Readers can't help but love Bernie a criminal with a heart of gold who goes out of his way to help his friends.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, convoluted and fun
Review: I consider Lawrence Block more a storyteller than novelist. His plots and characters are quirky, often taking unexpected - and sometimes irrelevant - turns.
"Burglar On The Prowl" is an excellent example of Block's skills as a storyteller.
Bernie Rhodenbarr is a bookseller, operating a small used bookstore. At least on occasion, when he decides to open the store. But wait, Bernie has another occupation: he's also a burglar. Bernie is thus an unusually literate and articulate criminal.

A friend asks a favor of Bernie. Just a little thing: burgle the house of the friend's nemesis. No problem for Bernie. In fact, he'll bring a friend. Bernie you see is a very sociable burglar and has a wide circle of friends, all of whom he seems to have told of his penchant for burglary.
There's a hard moment before Bernie can oblige his friend: another friend, a cop, hauls Bernie in connection with a multiple homicide. The cop, almost a refugee from a Damon Runyan story, has concluded that Bernie must have been in cahoots with the murderers because the burgled safe would have demanded Bernie's skills to crack.
Bernie, of course, has something like a get out of jail free card and is sprung in short order by his lawyer who recently took up martial arts. This latter detail and many like it become important later.
Everything becomes important latter because Bernie is a marvelous character who lives in a world of marvelous happenings, all of which eventually wind up as cogs in a big machine - the story Block is telling.
Block may not be to everyone's tastes. I sometimes can't make it all the way through his stories. But "Burglar On The Prowl" is a fun read.

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: Bernie's back !
Review: I had a very hard time putting this book down. Bernie's as likeable as ever in it.

Block is such a great writer. Like the other Burglar books, this one is witty, smart and very well-written.

Rating:
Summary: All of the author's usual devices don't add up this time
Review: I love Lawrence Block's novels, and I sure hope he isn't starting to give a diminished effort by just throwing together all the standard components of his The Burglar series, featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr.

In this installment, Bernie's pal Carolyn and Policeman Ray Kirschmann both reappear, and Bernie, as always, is something of a ladies man, but always the gentleman.

The burglary that gets Bernie mixed up in a triple murder relies on coincidence to such a great degree, it loses believability. The romantic liaison is also a tough sell for this reader and the resolution of who did what to whom became so confusing it was hard to finish the book, and even when I had finished it, I still didn't understand the intricate relationships and miraculously timed coincidences.

Please don't let my quibbling dissuade you from reading this book if you already like the Bernie Rhodenbarr series: If you're hooked on them, as I am, you have to read it. But if you've never read one of them, don't start with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Bernie's the best
Review: I so look forward to each installment in the Bernie Rhoddenbarr series. This book lived up to my expectations. It is well written with all the usual characters and many others thrown in. Bernie himself has to be one of the more interesting characters in literature. A burglar that runs a bookstore and has a soft spot in his heart. I finished the book in under 3 days and enjoyed ever bit of it.