On the fringe of Pulp

[War In 15MM]

Lawrence Block authored a wonderful series of mystery novels featuring Bernard Rhodenbarr, a burglar/New York used book seller, who tends to find himself in the middle of  murders.  The novels are literate, clever, and funny.  One in particular is on the fringe of Pulp.  It is entitled The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart.  It comes complete with a cast of characters out of The Maltese Falcon spiced with the heirs to post WWI central European thrones that never quite rose above the level of their claim and long retired American agents who had worked with the want-to-be royality to upset first the Nazi and the Soviet power structure in the region.  Each Rhodenbarr mystery ends with the classic bringing all the interested parties together for the reveal of who done it.  In The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart that reveal takes place in chapter 20 or 21 and is a meal to delight the heart of those who love Pulp.