Lawrence Block, The Burglar on the Prowl

The Burglar on the Prowl

Lawrence Block

Morrow, March 2004, $24.95, 320 pp.

ISBN 0060198303

He owns a second hand bookstore in Manhattan and has an antiquarian business on the side but the job he loves best is the one that is against the law. He's a burglar with a heart of gold who doesn't believe in violence and even has a policeman, who knows he breaks the law, as a friend. Over lunch, Marty Gilmartin asks Bernie to rob plastic surgeon Crandall Roundtree Mapes because his girlfriend dumped him for the doctor. Always happy to do a favor for a friend Bernie agrees.

A couple of days before he plans to break into Mape's safe, Bernie has the urge to pull off another burglary but before he is through with the job the resident and her date come home. Bernie hides under the bed while the man is raping the woman who is under the influence of Roofies. The next day, his policeman friend Marty comes to his store and tells him he was spotted on security cameras in the area and a block away, a doorman and two tenants of the building were killed, their safe standing open. There's not enough evidence to hold Bernie and he goes back to his bookstore where a man pays $1300 for a book that is only worth a few dollars. When he runs into the street to give the man his money, a car comes along and kills the man and the driver steals the book. Not long after that Bernie's house is tossed, the thieves obviously looking for something. Bernie, with the help of a few friends decides to find the perpetrator and bring him to justice, hopefully without getting killed.

What makes THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL so exciting is that every crook knows what is being hunted except for Bernie. The protagonist honestly loves the rush of robbing people but he never uses violence and even during a heist doesn't take everything that is valuable and transportable. Readers can't help but love Bernie a criminal with a heart of gold who goes out of his way to help his friends.

Harriet Klausner