Didn't Agatha Christie already write this book? Well, not exactly...
Bookseller and New-Yorker-to-the-bone, Bernie Rhodenbarr rarely ventures out of Manhattan, but he's excited about the romantic getaway he has planned for himself and current lady love Lettice at the Cuttleford House, a remote upstate b&b. Unfortunately, Lettice has a prior engagement—she's getting married . . . and not to Bernie—so he decides to take best buddy Carolyn instead. A restful respite from the big city's bustle would be too good to waste. Besides, there's a very valuable first edition shelved in the Cuttleford's library that Bernie's just itching to get his hands on. Did we neglect to mention that Bernie's a burglar?
But first he's got to get around a very dead body on the library floor. The plot's thickened by an isolating snowstorm, downed phone lines, the surprise arrival of Lettice and her reprehensible new hubby, and a steadily increasing corpse count. And it's Bernie who'll have to figure out whodunit . . . or die trying.
"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 "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 "A witty series, Bernie is incorrigibly adorable. Between his inquiring mind and his sticky fingers, Bernie is the ideal sleuth. Notre Dame at dusk. Pepy's account of the great fire of London. A really good cashmere coat. Some treasures are timeless...I feel like putting Bernie Rhodenbarr on that list." —New York Times Book Review
