Highly-enjoyable (and funny!) read – though perhaps my enjoyment in it stemmed more from the dialogues/ banter between the characters and the way Bernie’s mind worked rather than from how the plot eventually unfurled.To get it out of the way: no, I really was not all that enthused with how the truth came about. Or what the cause of the crimes turned out to be. It was a bit of a downer, to put it mildly.But I am trying not to dwell on that (taken as a whole, the execution of the denouement could perhaps be considered trivial in the larger scheme of the novel) and, instead, focus on how this book did entertain me. It has been glossed to death how ironic the premise is: that a burglar, in the “harmless” intention of stealing a book whose current existence and location was not even a cemented fact, suddenly found himself having to solve a series of deaths played out in the manner of the English whodunit greats in a conveniently-English-ish setting. And that’s how the charm of this work finds footing. Bernie as a character doesn’t take himself too seriously. He knows how to poke fun at himself without it having to be about self-pity. And he’s terrific at bandying wits – be it against a 10-year old or his intrepid companion the cat or the lesbian. A laidback guy who takes things in stride whilst able to drop an inconspicuously clever rejoinder without batting an eyelash. Love him.The novel itself in general is appealing, acting as a sort-of-backwards homage to crime novels and crime novelists alike. It embroils itself in the murky details of the deaths while regularly breaking the fourth wall by reminding the reader, that, yes, indeed… this is almost-kinda like the thing that happened in that famous Christie novel while the case of that body lying over there is just the sort of thing that Sayers will plop on the lap of the intrepid Lord Peter Wimsey…All-in-all, a quick yet still engrossing read.
This is a five star mystery, no doubt, and my favorite Bernie book by far. Naturally, I respond according to a book in this series depending on what Block is satirizing in it. I admit, I'm a huge Agatha Christie fanboy so TBITL is right up my alley. This is Block satirizing the cozy mystery. It's funny, but not jokey. It can be read just like a cozy while both poking fun at and applauding it too. And I have a soft spot for this one especially since it's a play on Agatha's "The Body in the Library"--one of the finest Miss Marples, in my opinion. In fact, I might give this another read right now.Edit: I did re-read it and in parts it is funny but it is so overly jokey and padded the whole book nearly collapses on itself. You must be a die hard mystery buff to love this book, and I was when I gave it 5 stars originally. (I'm still a mystery fan but I've read more mysteries since I first read this one.) The dialogue really tried my patience this time around with all the ostentatious 'cleverness.' The following is one of the least offending examples of the screwball comedy repartee. (Less is more, Lawrence.) When a character is wondering how the cops were called given the fact that the phone lines were down:"It's just a good thing the police got there when they did. I still can’t understand how they managed it.”"They used a helicopter,” I said.Maybe that doesn't sound that bad to you but wait till you get to the part about English food and crossword puzzle mammals. The stuff is pages long.Overall, the book is an okay but grating read. I won't return to this one again lest I have to knock it another two stars.
After his girlfriend announces she's getting married to another man, Bernie takes off to an English Style country house with Carolyn to lick his wounds in searching for a Raymond Chandler book rumoured to be personally inscribed to Dashell Hammett.It's the winter, in the middle of nowhere, and the snow is coming in thick and fast. The last thing anyone needs is to realise they are trapped with no chance of escape with a killer on the loose.Medium length book (most of Block's books come in at under 300 pages, this is just over), and it has all the usual witty conversations and one liners between Bernie and Carolyn. Some of the secondary characters were not particularly 3 Dimensional - only one of the murder victims actually got to say anything, but do you really ever talk to everyone when on holiday?There is a precocious child, and I have a vague feeling that this has been used before as a technique in a previous book, but I could be mistaken.Anyway, once again, a Rhoddenbarr book that I enjoyed.
—Sorcha
I have recently been burying myself in detective/mystery classics. In the last month, I've read Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. So when I got wind that Block, a writer whose work I enjoy, wrote a book where his burglar protagonist, Bernie Rhodenbarr, attempts to steal a first-edition copy of The Big Sleep inscribed to Dashiell Hammett, only to get caught up in an Agatha Christie type murder-mystery in an English country house during a blizzard, I couldn't pass it up. Even Rhodenbarr's cat is a literary allusion -- named after E.W. Hornung's gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. But I digress.This story is, despite the murders, a light read that delights in hanging lampshades on many detective/mystery tropes. While the pace dragged a tiny bit in the middle, and the story jarred me with a switch from first to third-person at one point, it was, overall, a very fun, enjoyable read I would definitely recommend to mystery fans familiar with the above classics.
—Eric
"The Burglar in the Library" is an enjoyable Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery.This is the second time I've read the story and it has remained enjoyable and entertaining.Bernie and his companion, Caroline Kaiser, leave New York City and travel upstate New York to a traditional English country house that has been converted to a B & B.Bernie is a book store owner in New York and knows his mystery writers. He has found that Raymond Chandler, one of the founders of the hard-boiled mystery will be at a friend's home in Connecticut in 1941. Also at the home will be Dashiell Hammett. While together Chandler personalizes a copy of his novel, "The Big Sleep" to Dashiell.Bernie thinks that the country house he's going to was the same place where Hammett and Chandler were. If that book was left in the library, it would be worth big money.When they get to the Cuttfield House a severe snowstorm is blowing. Eventually, the house is cut off, and someone cuts the electricity, then the fun begins, someone begins killing the people at the House.As a mystery fan myself, it was so much fun to hear about Ed McBain, Agatha Christie as well as Chandler and Hammett as characters in a story.The pace of the story is finely tuned and the book provides constant enjoyment. It's just what that doctor ordered for a patient wanting a good read.
—Michael
