Rating: 
Summary: Bernie Bearly Breaks into Burglary
Review: Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, "honest" person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn't proud of what he does, doesn't like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing nonessential valuables from rich people. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. As the series develops, Bernie has a chance to show that he has "ethics" that he follows. Very nice!So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar in the Rye is the ninth book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart and The Burglar in the Library. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Despite that admonition, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. This is the last book in the series as of now. The series, always comical and satirical, continues the new turn begun in The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart. The spoof expands to the detective/thriller genre in general. I found this change to be a welcome and charming one. Anyone who is a fan of The Purloined Letter will appreciate the many references to it. The Purloined Letter has been a favorite mystery short story of mine since I was a boy along with The Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deft display of the power of misdirection. Lawrence Block does a fine turn here in showing new ways to redirect attention in this entertaining literary thriller. So what's it all about? The story is loosely based on the background of one J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. Here, he's called Gulliver (Gully) Fairborn, and his former agent is planning to sell some of his letters, and destroy Fairborn's privacy. A beautiful woman, Alice Cottrell, asks Bernie to retrieve the letters, and Bernie becomes a hotel guest in the Paddington Hotel (themed to Paddington the bear) to give himself an inside edge. The entry into literary agent Anthea Landau's suite goes well, except Bernie finds her dead there. Right behind him are the police, and Bernie's on the run. While escaping, he manages to pick up an interesting item but soon finds himself under suspicion for the murder. Coincidences begin to pile up, and Bernie breaks and enters his way into our hearts with an outlandish scheme to remedy all the wrongs and bring the killer to justice. The resolution has great literary panache of the sort that will leave you chuckling for some time. Some of the funniest parts of this book are the on-going references to rye. Bernie starts drinking rye rather than Perrier (when he's planning to do a heist) or Scotch (when he's kicking back). He explains how rye bread is made. He reviews folk songs that mention rye. Pretty soon, lots of others are drinking rye too and discussing its merits. Bernie just can't seem to get away from rye! Does that make him a catcher? The theme of this book focuses on the importance of (and challenges involved in) maintaining privacy. Remember: It's not just celebrities who have this problem! Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Rating:
Summary: Bernie Bearly Breaks into Burglary
Review: Lawrence Block is one of our most talented mystery authors. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series he explores how an ordinary, but intelligent, "honest" person might go about pursuing a life of crime as a fastidious and talented burglar who isn't proud of what he does, doesn't like to hang out with criminals, and really gets a big thrill out of breaking and entering . . . and removing nonessential valuables from rich people. As you can see, there's a sitcom set-up to provide lots of humor. But the humor works well in part because Mr. Block is able to put the reader in the Bernie's shoes while he breaks, enters and steals . . . and evades the long arm of the law. To balance the "honest" burglar is an array of "dishonest" and equally easy-money loving cops. As a result, you're in a funny moral never-never land while your stomach tightens and your arm muscles twitch as tension builds. To make matters even more topsy-turvy, Bernie at some point in every story turns into an investigator who must figure out "who-dun-it" for some crime that he personally didn't do. It's almost like one of those "mystery at home" games where the victim comes back as the police investigator, playing two roles. As the series develops, Bernie has a chance to show that he has "ethics" that he follows. Very nice! So much for explaining the concept of the series. The Burglar in the Rye is the ninth book in the series. I strongly suggest that you begin the series by reading Burglars Can't Be Choosers and follow it up with The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart and The Burglar in the Library. Each story in the series adds information and characters in a way that will reduce your pleasure of the others if read out of order. Despite that admonition, I originally read them out of order and liked them well enough. I'm rereading them now in order, and like it much better this way. This is the last book in the series as of now. The series, always comical and satirical, continues the new turn begun in The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart. The spoof expands to the detective/thriller genre in general. I found this change to be a welcome and charming one. Anyone who is a fan of The Purloined Letter will appreciate the many references to it. The Purloined Letter has been a favorite mystery short story of mine since I was a boy along with The Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deft display of the power of misdirection. Lawrence Block does a fine turn here in showing new ways to redirect attention in this entertaining literary thriller. So what's it all about? The story is loosely based on the background of one J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye. Here, he's called Gulliver (Gully) Fairborn, and his former agent is planning to sell some of his letters, and destroy Fairborn's privacy. A beautiful woman, Alice Cottrell, asks Bernie to retrieve the letters, and Bernie becomes a hotel guest in the Paddington Hotel (themed to Paddington the bear) to give himself an inside edge. The entry into literary agent Anthea Landau's suite goes well, except Bernie finds her dead there. Right behind him are the police, and Bernie's on the run. While escaping, he manages to pick up an interesting item but soon finds himself under suspicion for the murder. Coincidences begin to pile up, and Bernie breaks and enters his way into our hearts with an outlandish scheme to remedy all the wrongs and bring the killer to justice. The resolution has great literary panache of the sort that will leave you chuckling for some time. Some of the funniest parts of this book are the on-going references to rye. Bernie starts drinking rye rather than Perrier (when he's planning to do a heist) or Scotch (when he's kicking back). He explains how rye bread is made. He reviews folk songs that mention rye. Pretty soon, lots of others are drinking rye too and discussing its merits. Bernie just can't seem to get away from rye! Does that make him a catcher? The theme of this book focuses on the importance of (and challenges involved in) maintaining privacy. Remember: It's not just celebrities who have this problem! Donald Mitchell
Co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
Rating: 
Summary: lots of fun, weak plot
Review: Lawrence Block serves up another fast-'n'-fun but poorly plotted caper. The dialogue is dead on, the writing is, as always, smooth and pitch perfect, and as always, it's obvious that Mr. Bock made the plot up as he went along, and painted himself into a corner. The wrap-up leaves you feeling cheated, but if you're a Block fan, it's worth picking up this book just to hang with Bernie, Carolyn, and company.
Rating:
Summary: Decent fun for an afternoon or two
Review: No, it's not the next "Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven", but "Burglar in the Rye" is worth a couple days' reading. This book has gotten a lot poor ratings, and the only reason I can think that they gave him 1s and 2s is that they were expecting more. Why? This is Lawrence Block, not J.D. Salinger. Anyway, the much-maligned dialogue is a staple of Block; either you love it or hate it. The Bernie Rhodenbarr series is intended to be light-hearted, so don't expect major issues to be confronted. Block likes to end the novels in this series with a Nero Wolfe-style group interrogation, and this one is no different. Again, it's fun if you're not expecting high literary merit. If you're looking for something a little more hard-boiled, I highly recommend Block's Matt Scudder series, which read so differently that you'd swear another author wrote them.
Rating:
Summary: Decent fun for an afternoon or two
Review: No, it's not the next "Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven", but "Burglar in the Rye" is worth a couple days' reading. This book has gotten a lot poor ratings, and the only reason I can think that they gave him 1s and 2s is that they were expecting more. Why? This is Lawrence Block, not J.D. Salinger. Anyway, the much-maligned dialogue is a staple of Block; either you love it or hate it. The Bernie Rhodenbarr series is intended to be light-hearted, so don't expect major issues to be confronted. Block likes to end the novels in this series with a Nero Wolfe-style group interrogation, and this one is no different. Again, it's fun if you're not expecting high literary merit. If you're looking for something a little more hard-boiled, I highly recommend Block's Matt Scudder series, which read so differently that you'd swear another author wrote them.
Rating:
Summary: Decent fun for an afternoon or two
Review: No, it's not the next "Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven", but "Burglar in the Rye" is worth a couple days' reading. This book has gotten a lot poor ratings, and the only reason I can think that they gave him 1s and 2s is that they were expecting more. Why? This is Lawrence Block, not J.D. Salinger. Anyway, the much-maligned dialogue is a staple of Block; either you love it or hate it. The Bernie Rhodenbarr series is intended to be light-hearted, so don't expect major issues to be confronted. Block likes to end the novels in this series with a Nero Wolfe-style group interrogation, and this one is no different. Again, it's fun if you're not expecting high literary merit. If you're looking for something a little more hard-boiled, I highly recommend Block's Matt Scudder series, which read so differently that you'd swear another author wrote them.
Rating: 
Summary: Our author tells where he got his idea
Review: People always ask me where I get my ideas, and I generally tell them I get them all from a little old man in Cleveland. But the genesis of the idea for The Burglar in the Rye is easy to trace. In February of 1998, I read two newspaper stories within a week of each other. First, Joyce Maynard, realizing that the world yearned to know the story of her life, had decided to write a tell-all book about her relationship with J D Salinger, thus invading the privacy of one of the two Most Reclusive Authors in America. Next, Candida Donadio, a literary agent, was reported ready to sell all her letters from her former client, Thomas Pynchon, thus violating the privacy of the other Most Reclusive Author. So I combined the two writers and the two outrages, and had burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr enlisted by the one-time teenage girlfriend of the legendary Gulliver Fairborn (whose novel, Nobody's Baby, changed the life of every 17-year-old who read it) to steal the writer's letters to his former agent before Sotheby's could take possession of them. Well, it worked just fine. And now, bless her heart, Ms. Maynard has struck again, consigning fourteen letters from Salinger to Sotheby's. And to think she went to all that trouble just to generate publicity for The Burglar in the Rye! Thanks, Joyce. Love ya, baby.
Rating:
Summary: Ending not up to par.
Review: Reclusive author, Gulliver Fairborn, wants his correspondence back. His ex-agent, Anthea Landau, is selling his letters to Sothbys so they can be auctioned off. However, attractive Alice Cottrel hires Bernie Rhodenbarr to burgle Landau's apartment and retrieve the letters before they can go on the auction block. Of course, when Bernie gets into Landau's apartment the letters are gone and the lady is stone-cold dead. I've read most of the Burglar series, and as many other reviewers have stated, they are meant to be light reading. I've never enjoyed them as much as Block's Matthew Scudder series but they're not bad. The dialog is sometimes a little too cute but I can live with that. What really bothered me about this one is the identity of the killer. Came right out of left field. This, I feel, is very unfair to the reader. I personally feel at the end of the book you should be able to go back and see where it was logical for the person to be the killer. There should have been clues or something that could have pointed to this person. I didn't find that in this book and I felt let down. Block always writes well and his characters are predictably quirky. As I mentioned before, the dialog is too cutesy at times but on the whole it's not too bad. The plot up until the end is really pretty good however I got the feeling that Mr. Block painted himself into a corner and wasn't sure how to bring this to a conclusion and thus the lame ending. Oh well. I'll most likely keep reading the Burglar books but I hope this isn't the start of a trend.
Rating:
Summary: Rhodenbarr's rousing return
Review: Renowned writer Gulliver Fairburn is irate to learn that his former agent Anthea Landau is selling their correspondence on the auction block. Gully relishes his privacy even though his first novel haunted every teen who ever read it. Gully's former lover Alice Cottrell turns to book store owner and thief Bernie Rhodenbarr to steal the letters before they go on sale. Bernie easily breaks into Anthea's hotel room, only to find her murdered body waiting for him. Bernie flees down the fire escape just ahead of the police, but in time to purloin another guest's necklace. NYPD officer Ray Kirschmann suspects the part time burglar killed Anthea, leaving it up to Bernie to prove otherwise or find a way to insure the cop turns a profit. The ninth Rhodenbarr mystery is as delightful and refreshing as all the others in the series are. The story line is entertaining as Bernie returns to his favorite profession only to find a corpse on the other side of the locked door he enters. It's not so subtle that only a blockhead would miss the novel's obvious humor and homage to Salinger. Lawrence Block demonstrates why this is one of the most popular series on the market in the past decade. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Bother With This One
Review: The Burglar in The Rye Lawrence Block Signet - May 2000 ISBN:0451198476 - Paperback Mystery / Comic<This is Bernie Rhodenbarr's ninth heist. Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookseller by day and burglar by night, is on the prowl again. Alice Cottrell has hired him to steal back the letters of reclusive author Gullivar Fairborn from Anthea Landauthe, who is about to put them up for auction. Bernie breaks into her room to search for the letters, but instead of letters he finds Anthea's dead body, and the cops are not far behind him. Bernie gathers all the suspects together in one room to see if he can try and weed out the culprit behind the murder that he is accused of. The Burglar in The Rye is a well-written book, but I had some real problems with it. (1) Every character in the book is involved with the murder, desired letters, or the missing jewels (a subplot). Telltale clues are left throughout the plot, which enables the reader to guess the outcome too early in the book. (2) Next, Block takes one-liners and turns them into several pages of talk, for instance "The Femininity" of Bernie's lesbian friend, "Carloyn, and Paddington Bear," or any number of dumb drinking jokes. Who really cares about these things? They didn't have anything to do with the storyline. Worst of all, the ending of the book is so preposterous; it did not make any sense. I know that Lawrence Block is a great writer and can write a good book because I read "The Hit Man" and it was a grand read. Not this one. Pam Stone END
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