The Burglar in the Rye by Lawrence Block

The Burglar in the Rye

Lawrence Block

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · July 31, 2007

A Mystery pick for readers exploring The Burglar in the Rye.

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Who it’s for
A book-loving burglar brings a sly, literary edge to this New York crime mystery.
Themes
Burglar wanted for murder, A reclusive author’s private letters
Genres
Cozy Mysteries, Funny Fiction, Amateur Sleuths

About this book

Gulliver Fairborn's novel, Nobody's Baby, changed Bernie Rhodenbarr's life. And now pretty Alice Cottrell, Fairborn's one-time paramour, wants the bookselling, book-loving burglar to break into a room in New York's teeth-achingly charming Paddington Hotel and purloin some of the writer's very personal letters before an unscrupulous agent can sell them. Here's an opportunity to use his unique talents in the service of the revered, famously reclusive author.

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But when Bernie gets there, the agent is dead . . . and Bernie's wanted for murder. (He really hates when that happens!) Perhaps it's karmic payback; Bernie did help himself to a ruby necklace on his way out. (But it was lying there. And he is a burglar.) Now he's in even hotter water. And he'll need to use every trick in the book—maybe going so far as to entice the hermitic Fairborn himself out of seclusion—to bring this increasingly twisted plot to a satisfying denouement.

Bookish Trouble

A book-loving burglar brings a sly, literary edge to this New York crime mystery.

Come here for

  • A mystery with a burglar at its center
  • A reclusive writer and very personal letters

Expect

  • Dry humor amid murder trouble
  • A bookish angle on classic crime-mystery knots

Where it sits

Cozy Mysteries58%
Funny Fiction40%
Amateur Sleuths28%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Funny Fiction
  • Mystery
  • Hard-Boiled Mystery
  • Cozy Mysteries
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • International Crime Fiction
  • The Occult & Supernatural
  • Suspense
  • Crime Fiction
Authors
Lawrence Block
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
July 31, 2007
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Burglar wanted for murder · A reclusive author’s private letters
Reading lane
Funny Fiction