It's hard to ignore
someone with his hands in your mouth. Bernie Rhodenbarr's all ears when
Dr. Sheldrake, his dentist, starts complaining about his detestable,
soon-to-be-ex wife, and happens to mention the valuable diamonds she
keeps lying around the apartment. Since Bernie's been known to
supplement his income as a bookstore owner with the not-so-occasional
bout of high-rise burglary, a couple of nights later he's in the
Sheldrake apartment with larceny on his mind -- and has to duck into a
closet when the lady of the house makes an unexpected entrance.
Unfortunately he's still there when an unseen assailant does Mrs.
Sheldrake in . . . and then vanishes with the jewels.
Bernie's got to come out of the closet some time. But when he does, he'll be facing a rap for a murder he didn't commit -- and for a burglary he certainly attempted -- unless he can hunt down the killer who left him hanging. |
Obviously the life of a cat burglar wouldn't be straight boring - he'd run into 'situations', although unlikely situations like this, to where he's in his dentist's chair and asked, in between tooth work, if he would hit up the ex-wife's apartment and steal back some jewels.
As always Bernie is a fun character who fully embraces his immoral outlooks but lives with his own code of honor in the thieving world. Love that the hands-out detective made his appearances; hope he does for all the books. Wonder what happened to the one girl from the first book? Guess it was a fleeting ship and not a lasting thing.
Not quite as good as the first but still cute and a fun ride. The villain in this case wasn't as fair to figure out but still a surprise. There's mucho tension in some spots as Bernie again ends up in tight situations, keeping the tension in line with the comical bursts. As with the first book, how the body happens is rather amusing; this burglar just doesn't have good luck when it comes to these crime scenes.
The series isn't award winning yet, it's more of a novelty type of cozy that I think mystery fans should enjoy. I have the next three books to read and look forward to more fun antics with a man who looks forward to burglary, but not these murders he keeps having to solve instead.
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