Can Block have established a pattern so soon in the series? As in the first book, Bernie takes on a job at the request of an acquaintance - against his better judgment, of course - and the execution of this crime leaves him on the scene with a corpse. This further leaves him homeless because the police have his place under surveillance waiting for the return of the obvious suspect. And all of this leaves him with no option but to find the actual murderer himself since it is the only way that he is going to get himself off the hook. Once is an accident, twice may be a coincidence, thrice is a conspiracy - or in this case, once is a clever plot device, twice might possibly be coincidental, three times is definitely a pattern. The plot similarities were simply too clear to ignore.
The title - which came first: the clever title or the ridiculous situation in which our hero finds himself? In the course of burglarizing the home of his dentist's ex-wife (that, too, is fairly ridiculous), she returns home unexpectedly, and Bernie hides in her closet while she and her male companion waste no time getting down to business. She even locked him in there, forcing him to be an unwilling earwitness to their activities. eventually they finish, the boyfriend leaves, and she takes a shower. Unfortunately, her shower is interrupted by the murderer who stabs her with a dental tool - to implicate the dentist/ex-husband - and decamps with the attache case which Bernie has carefully filled with her jewelry. For Bernie, that is definitely the last straw, after all, he stole the stuff fair and square himself and here some rank outsider comes in and takes advantage of his careful work.
This series is clearly written for fun - and it is fun. The stereotypes are so very stereotypical: lawyers are so smarmy, the cops are either completely corrupt or too dumb to be corrupted, Bernie the burglar is well dressed and urbane and an absolute master of the art of picking locks, fair maidens whether plant waterers or dental hygienists, are lovely and much too practical to stick with a professional burglar.
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