โ Scribed by Block, Lawrence
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
A Bad Night for Burglars was written sometime in the fall of 1975, probably not much more than six months before I began work on Bernie Rhodenbarrs debut in Burglars Cant Be Choosers. I didnt have the short story consciously in mind when I wrote the book, which seemed to grow directly out of a fantasy of mine in which I took up burglary as as alternative to writing only to break into an apartment where amurder had recently taken place.
It wasnt until years later that I saw A Bad Night for Burglars as a precursor to the book and thus to the whole Bernie Rhodenbarr series. It seems obvious now, but I never really looked at the story once Id finished it and sent it off to my agent. (He sent it to Fred Dannay, who took it as my first sale to Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. Fred specialized in changing titles, rarely for the better; he changed this one to Gentlemens Agreement, which wouldnt have been an improvement under any circumstances, but which was especially unfortunate given that Laura Z. Hobsons bestselling novel, about genteel covert antisemitism, bore that title and was still very much alive in national memory. Ah well. I was able to restore the original title when I included the story in Enough Rope.
The titular burglar whos having a distinctly bad night doesnt have a name, nor does he own a secondhand bookstore and hang out with a poodle-grooming lesbian. But its not hard to see the shadow of Bernie here. On the other hand, were Mrs. Rhodenbarrs son Bernard to find himself in this particular mess, Im sure hed find a better way to Work Things Out
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๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
'There's no two ways about it: when I was young I was a bad lad.' Everyone thinks this lad is bad, even him. So it's no surprise when he's sent to Hollesley Bay Borstal. But then he starts to work in the prison stable, gaining the trust of the horses and the respect of Mr Alfie, and something begins