Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye (USA 2007)

From the Publisher:
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. 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.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye. HarperCollins, ISBN: 0060872896 (August, 2007), 352 p., $7.99.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye (UK 2001)

From the Publisher:
Literary agent Anthea Landau, legendary resident of the Paddington Hotel, is auctioning off her personal correspondence from enigmatic writer Gulliver Fairborn. The reclusive Fairborn can't afford to outbid the collectors who are fighting to get their hands on the letters. Bernie Rhodenbarr's at the Paddington Hotel to make sure they never do. Bernie breaks into Anthea Landua's suite. And finds her... dead. The police burst in, and Bernie takes a fire escape down to an empty room, where he quietly pockets some nice ruby jewellery. Minutes later, he is under arrest.

When Bernie is bailed out, he learns that the gems were heisted the night before he stole them. Now, to clear his name and right some terrible wrongs, Bernie must solve a murder or two, track down a rival jewel thief, retrieve the missing letters, find the rubies' rightful owner, and still manage to protect the elusive Gulliver Fairborn... without getting caught.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye. No Exit Press, ISBN: 1842430300 (August, 2001), 288 p., £5.99.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
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. 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.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye. Signet, ISBN: 0451198476 (May, 2000), 308 p., $6.99.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
Literary agent Anthea Landau, legendary resident of the Paddington Hotel, is auctioning off her personal correspondence from enigmatic writer Gulliver Fairborn. The reclusive Fairborn can't afford to outbid the collectors who are fighting to get their hands on the letters. Bernie Rhodenbarr's at the Paddington Hotel to make sure they never do. Bernie breaks into Anthea Landua's suite. And finds her... dead. The police burst in, and Bernie takes a fire escape down to an empty room, where he quietly pockets some nice ruby jewellery. Minutes later, he is under arrest.

When Bernie is bailed out, he learns that the gems were heisted the night before he stole them. Now, to clear his name and right some terrible wrongs, Bernie must solve a murder or two, track down a rival jewel thief, retrieve the missing letters, find the rubies' rightful owner, and still manage to protect the elusive Gulliver Fairborn... without getting caught.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye. No Exit Press, ISBN: 1901982602 (June, 1999), 288 p., £16.99.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Bernie Rhodenbor returns in on all new caper bound to please Lawrence Block legions of fans
Literary agent Anthea Landau, legendary resident of the Paddington Hotel, is auctioning off her personal correspondence from enigmatic writer Gulliver Fairborn. Her famous ex-client, who guards his private life so jealously that he has never been photographed or interviewed, is reportedly out raged by landau's betrayal -- yet can't afford to outbid the collectors who are fighting to get their hands on his letters.

Bernie Rhodenbarr is at the Paddington to make sure they never do. Gully Fairborn is Bernie's literary idol, to when Fairborn's ex-lover, Alice Cottrell, asks the bookseller-burglar to help her return the letters to their rightful author, Bernie doesn't hesitate. He breaks into Anthea Landou's suite and finds her -- dead.

The police burst in, and Bernie takes a fire escape down to an empty room, where he quietly pockets some nice ruby jewelry. Minutes later, he is under arrest. By the time Bernie is bailed out, his bookstore is visited by a host of mysterious folks, all demanding the letters he doesn't have. That's when Bernie learns that the gems he does have were heisted the night before he stole them.

Now, to clear his name and right some terrible wrongs, Bernie must solve a murder or two, track down a rival thief, retrieve the missing letters, find the rubies' rightful owner, and still manage to protect the elusive Gulliver Fairborn... without getting caught.

Wonderfully quirky characters, twists and turns galore, and Lawrence Blocks trademark dead-on dialogue make The Burglar in the Rye another riotous triumph for Bernie Rhodenbart.

Lawrence Block: The Burglar in the Rye. Dutton, ISBN: 0525945008 (June, 1999), 280 p., $23.95.