Shortish and funny book about a letters, famous authors, rubies, killers with enough twists and turns to keep on interested

Lawrence Block once again provides a good mystery involving the book world. This time Bernie gets involved with trying to retrieve letters written by an iconic reclusive author to the author's first literary agent, which letters the agent is in the process of submitting to Sotheby's for auction against the author's wishes. The identity of the murderer took me completely by surprise! ( )

Bernie Rhodenbarr is a known bookseller and owner of Barnegat Books. His previous line of work, and occasional side line, is master thief.

He has been hired to steal some letters of a reclusive author. Seems the author’s ex-agent is thinking of auctioning them off, and there is great interest in having them published. The author is not one for having his private life, or thought, exposed.

Sounds simple, right? Not quite, as when Bernie gets into the penthouse apartment he finds the ex-agent dead. There is also the matter of the police to deal with.

Bernie finds there are a number of interested parties for the letters, all willing to pay some sort of remuneration to see/get those letters. Then there is the case of the necklace that went missing during his robbery attempt – from another apartment!

Bernie finds he’s not only trying to steal the letters, he is also trying to figure out who set him up for a murder wrap!

Bernie Rhodenbarr books are a fun read. Life isn’t simple or easy, but Bernie makes it entertaining along with his friends, Carolyn Kaiser, owner of the Poodle Factory, and Ray Kirschmann, one of NYPD’s finest.

Situations, characters, dialogue — all elements that work well together to provide an entertaining read. ( )

This is my favorite of all the Bernie Rhodenbarr books. ( )

Lawrence Block once again provides a good mystery involving the book world. This time Bernie gets involved with trying to retrieve letters written by an iconic reclusive author to the author's first literary agent, which letters the agent is in the process of submitting to Sotheby's for auction against the author's wishes. The identity of the murderer took me completely by surprise! ( )