The Burglar in the Library
Lawrence Block
342 pages
published in 1997

Yep, yet another Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery. I can't help it, they're just such fun books. As usual, Bernie goes off stealing and stumbles across a murder and as usual he ends up solving the murder and getting the stuff he was after.

Which this time is a rare first print of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, with his autograph and signed to Dashiell Hammett.. Bernie accidently comes across a mention of this book and thinks it may still be part of the libray of a fancy, English style holiday resort in Up State New York, so he takes his old friend and confidante Carolyn with him to this resort, Cuttleford House.

But theft wasn't the only motive for his visit; originally he wanted to take his girlfriend there, but then she mentioned she was getting married --to somebody else...

So there he is, in the perfect setting for an English cozy murder mystery, hunting for a book that's the epitome of the hardboiled detective school. Is it any wonder the murders start to pile up?

A nice little nobrainer this, though there was a bit too much "gee it's just like a detective novel" going on.