Various people in New York interact in various ways, including murder. I felt a lot of pity for the murderer. Takes place after 9/11. Some rather pornographic sex scenes.
A collection of stories, excerpts, and essays about Bernie Rhodenbarr, mostly. Very nice!
Quote:
"If I didn't play chess," he said, "You wouldn't have shot me, would you?" "It's a question that occupies the mind, isn't it?" "It is," said the burglar.
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The Poulard is a terrific lock, no question about it. But I don't know where they get off calling it pickproof.
Craig, The World's Greatest Dentist, wants to relieve his ex-wife of her jewelry. He gets Bernie to do the job. Things go very very wrong.
Quote:
If I have to eat rhubarb preserves I can damn well eat them on warm toast.
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I ate more toast, sipped some coffee. I seemed to be developing a definite taste for the rhubarb jam. I wasn't positive I'd go running out for another jar when this one was finally finished, but I was beginning to like it.
Bernie Rhodenbarr goes to an English-style country inn in New England to steal a book.
QUOTE:
"And she's a Cobbett, which means there's probably not a whole lot she hasn't done. The only thing that makes me exotic is that I'm not a blood relative."
BONUS QUOTE:
Don't ask me what kind of gun it was. Guns make me nervous-- people keep them in drawers so that they can shoot burglars with them, and I'm opposed to that--...
Bernie Rodenbarr tries to steal some letters from a famous author, but they're gone and somebody is dead. EDIT 2023: I guess I DID read this before! Still excellent!
This alternate universe story was...OK, but I didn't think it was as good as the rest of the series.
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"Girl Scout Cookies," he announced. "There is a child in this building, just a little bit of a thing, and it is her ambition to outself all the other members of her coven."
"I think they call it a troop," Carolyn said.
The last hike boosted the sales tax to 8 1/4 percent, and there are people who can figure out that sort of thing in their heads, but they probably can't pick locks. God gives us all different talents and we do what we can with them.
Well, I kinda figured out who did it, but on the other hand I didn't see those two who were gonna do it. If you know what I mean.
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"...An old man like that, you worry about his heart, or maybe he had a fall, things like that. The guy was seventy-one."
"I didn't realize he was that old."
"Yeah, seventy-one..."
Matthew Scudder, #2. Scudder is drinking in this one, I guess he hasn't started AA yet. An acquaintance, a blackmailer, is murdered and Scudder finds himself trying to figure out who done it. Great story!
Quote:
I got to my feet and brushed myself off. I was shaking, and badly rattled. She said, "Mister, if you could spare..." then her eyes clouded slightly and she frowned at some private puzzlement. "No," she said. "You just gave me money, didn't you? I'm very sorry. It's difficult to remember." -- So touching!!.