Whenever I’m asked to describe my new Watson & Doyle series, I begin “No-one ever said ‘I want to write a detective series based on Tsvetan Todorov’s literary theories’… but I did.” So imagine my pleasure when I discovered Lawrence Block had long since beat me to it with his Bernie Rhodenbarr series.
Todorov argued that the murder mystery is first and foremost a book about reading and writing, where the author and criminal are allied in a battle of wits against the detective and the reader. One need only look at the titles of the Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries, from The Burglar who Quoted Kipling to The Burglar in the Rye to see Block has taken this description to heart. Bernie Rhodenbarr is a gentleman thief who also runs a used bookstore, in order to mingle with people who are both “literary and literate,” and it is clear the author shares his characters’ tastes, writing stories that are as much a commentary on mystery fiction as they are engaging mysteries in their own right.
In this latest installment, Block doubles the stakes by taking as his source material one of the first science fiction novels to also be a commentary on science fiction: Frederic Brown’s What Mad Universe? In Brown’s novel, science fiction editor Keith Winton finds himself in an alternate universe constructed from his fantasies about what Science Fiction should be. Similarly, Bernie Rhodenbarr finds himself in a universe that has changed many of the things that have taken the joy out of his career as a thief and bookseller. Amazon no longer exists. Neither do security cameras. An old friend is miraculously restored to life. Not to mention that his best friend and soul mate might just also be his perfect sexual partner. Is this really the best of all possible worlds?
But such philosophical considerations take a back seat to a first-class plot, in which Bernie is faced with the twin challenges of stealing the world’s most valuable diamond and an equally ingenious heist that he has no memory of committing. But no spoilers. If you want to know whodunnit, you’ll have to find out for yourself. The Burglar who Met Frederic Brown is available for pre-order here.
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