Fourth mystery book about Bernard Rhodenbarr, professional burglar in
1970s New York.
There's another slight change to the formula, as this time Bernie
doesn't stumble on a corpse at the scene of his burglary: it turns up
later, as does another one, and he's the only plausible connection
between them. Fortunately the cops don't know that.
As last time, there's a terribly expensive item involved in the
burglary, in this case a
1913 Liberty Head nickel,
for which the history given seems to be accurate. (OK, in 1980 when
this was published it would have been harder for a reader to check.)
The only thing that really threw me into the specific period, though,
was a passing mention of Freddie Laker's Skytrain service: otherwise
it could be happening more or less any time in the post-skyscraper,
pre-compact-disc era.
With Bernie out of the immediate frame, there's less of a pressure to
solve the case, and it eventually takes a third party to get Bernie to
take it on – this even after a friend of long standing (who could have
been an interesting recurring character) has been murdered. Perhaps
for this reason, there's much less tension than in the previous books
of this series, and this is an unfortunate omission.
The actual mystery is disappointing, relying rather more on
coincidence than I find acceptable; even Bernie ends up planting
rather more evidence than usual to make it look plausible to the cops.
While some of the solution is obvious I didn't work out the whole
thing, and frankly on the basis of what's presented here I'll be
somewhat surprised if anyone does.
As always with this series, don't read them too close together. The
formula is only just beneath the skin.
Followed by The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian.
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