Bookseller Bernie Rhodenbarr's in love—with an exotic Eastern European beauty who shares his obsession with Humphrey Bogart movies. He's in heaven, munching popcorn with his new amour every night at a Bogart Film Festival—until their Casablanca-esque idyll is cut short by his other secret passion: burglary.
When he's hired to pilfer a portfolio of valuable documents from a Park Avenue apartment, Bernie can hardly refuse. But the occupant's early return forces Bernie to flee empty-handed—and he soon finds himself implicated in a murder. Before you can say "who stole the strawberries?" he's hunting for a killer, up to his neck in the outrageous intrigues of a tiny Balkan nation . . . and menaced by more sinister fat men and unsavory toadies than the great Bogie himself butted heads with in pursuit of that darn bird!
“Wonderfully detailed and inspired writing…Bernie Rhodenbarr doesn’t have to try for hipness, because hip is in the very air he breathes…He is cute without being cuddly, he is witty without looking like he’s striving for it, and he is rakish without possessing a single mean streak in his lithe and sinuous body. His plots are cunning and inventive…and his language—I suppose we should say Lawrence Block’s language—is dry and droll and elegant, like how Dashiell Hammett would write if he were still doing the Thin Man books today.” —The Guardian “With a writer like Block, a master plotter, trying to figure out the guilty party can definitely keep you turning the pages.” —Toronto Star “Wonderful…hilarious dialogue and characters you wish you could invite over for supper. Block is a hoot, plain and simple. [Block’s] written dialogue has the honesty of a conversation overheard on a bus…Bernie Rhodenbarr is a lot-of-laughs burglar. Recommended reading…Age has not dimmed Rhodenbarr’s considerable charms. The wit runs fast and plot twists are quick as a cat burglar.” —USA Today “Block always seems to be having the time of his life in this series about a nimble-witted New York City antiquarian book dealer and still once-in-a-while…burglar. If you like Donald Westlake’s capers, you’ll love Bernie. Mystery writers with the comic touch are rare, and Block is one of the best.” —Washington Post Book World “Lawrence Block is as much a pro at writing mysteries as Rhodenbarr is at stealing. Beyond the mechanics of building a mystery, however, Block hasn’t lost the mischievous gleam in his writing eye that leads readers through the twists and turns of a satisfying plot.” —Wisconsin State Journal