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There was a point last year where people who knew me would cross the street when they saw me coming because they were afraid I would start talking about SMALL TOWN by Lawrence Block yet again. I accordingly viewed Block's follow-up, THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL, with at least some mild trepidation. How was he going to follow SMALL TOWN? How could he? Actually, I wasn't all too worried about the latter issue. Block has been writing, and writing well, for decades now, with no appreciable hint of a slowdown. It is a tribute to his literary prolificacy and a sad comment upon our general literacy to note that Block has by himself written more novels, total, than most people own, regardless of who wrote them. So does THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL on the prowl match, or even perhaps surpass, SMALL TOWN? No. Is it, on its own terms, a resoundingly well-written novel, worth losing a night's sleep over? Yes, most resoundingly, yes.
THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL marks the return of Bernie Rhodenbarr. Rhodenbarr is the owner, proprietor, and sole employee of a used bookstore in Manhattan --- as Bernie would put it, a whole lot smaller than The Strand. That's his day job. He is, on occasion, a burglar by night. He is a good bookstore proprietor, and a master burglar. The voice of THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL is Rhodenbarr's, and while the story is not lighthearted, it has a light touch. One gets the feeling that everything will turn out okay; you're just not sure how.
THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL explores some of the themes that Block explored in SMALL TOWN, the primary one being that New York City, or at least the Manhattan portion, is a small town, with the degrees of separation between individuals being very few if not nonexistent. It begins with Rhodenbarr's friend Marty Gilmartin asking Rhodenbarr to perform a burglary not for lucre, but for malice. Crandall Mapes has aroused Gilmartin's ire, and Gilmartin wants the cad taken down a peg or two. Rhodenbarr agrees, checks the place out, and begins making arrangements to do the job the following Friday.
In the meantime, Rhodenbarr has the jones and can't resist pulling off another job in the interim. Before that night is over, he has been present during a rape --- an attack which he is powerless to prevent --- and is accused of being involved in another burglary and a double murder in the same neighborhood. Rhodenbarr has a hard time establishing an alibi. He can't say that he didn't commit the burglary/murder because he was busy committing another burglary elsewhere, and besides, his image has been captured on a number of surveillance cameras in the area (note to Bernie: there is no right to privacy in a public place). Now Rhodenbarr has attracted the attention of the police; he has also attracted the attention of the real burglars, who think that he has somehow acquired what they were after.
In fact, Rhodenbarr has multiple problems. He needs to dodge the real burglars/murderers and the police; he feels very motivated to do something, anything, to the rapist who committed the dastardly act right in front of him; he'd like to help the victim out; and, oh yeah, there's that burglary for Gilmartin that he has to commit on Friday. Now...would you believe me if I told you that it all ties in together, and that the common denominator is not Bernie Rhodenbarr? And that it ties together plausibly? I wouldn't believe it either, but it does. And all in one setting.
Block has been at this for awhile, and he goes after the readers who say to themselves, "I'm going to read just one more chapter and then stop." No, Block's chapters are like literary M & Ms. You start with one, and then have another, then another, and you're not going to stop until the bowl is empty and the book is done.
Is THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL perfect? No. Block made the ending just a little more complicated than it really needed to be --- I really didn't need three hypotheses when just the actual solution would have been fine --- but the first 314 pages, and the last four, of this 320 page book were so superbly written that it seems like a pissant's quibble to even bring it up. So I won't.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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