There are noble robbers—for example, the worthy Robin Hood; there are gentleman thieves—think of the famous Rocambole or Arsène Lupin; and Bernie Rhodenbarr, the hero of Lawrence Block’s wonderful detective series, is an intellectual burglar, a connoisseur of literature and art. By day he sells books in his secondhand bookstore, and by night he turns into a virtuoso thief. And then one day, having slipped into a hotel room in search of letters from the “great recluse” Fairburn, he finds a murdered woman…