This next review was inspired by Bill of Traditional Mysteries, who reviewed
Lawrence Block’s The Burglar in the
Library a while ago. The review interested me—I had never read a Block and
he seems to be a very prolific author of hardboiled mysteries/crime novels. I
have another of his books, Eight Million
Ways to Die, sitting on my shelf awaiting me to read it. But it seemed to
me a little more interesting to first take a detour to the world of Bernie
Rhodenbarr, bookseller and professional burglar, as he gets involved in a
traditional snowed-in-English-country-house mystery!
After a relationship of Bernie’s goes sour (after all, the
girl was getting married that Thursday!) the burglar decides to say “to hell
with it” and refuses to cancel reservations he’s made for the weekend at an
exclusive and quaint little hotel/guest house called Cuttleford House. He
decides to instead bring Carolyn Keiser along, his best friend in the world as
well as a lesbian. But he isn’t coming to Cuttleford House just to enjoy the
fairy-tale-England atmosphere of the place… he’s there to look for a book. More
specifically, a copy of the first edition of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep inscribed by the author to
Dashiell Hammett! Such a book, if it existed, would be absolutely priceless to
fanatical collectors. And Bernie, after reading the memoirs of a forgotten pulp
author, is convinced not only that the book probably exists, but also that its
location is Cuttleford House.
