Aside from the good mystery -- Bernie always gets himself into some kind of scrape that he has to dig himself out of by solving the crime he has been accused of -- the books have great repartee. I burst out loud laughing several times. Bernie has just stumbled into another thief (female) in an apartment he was burgling while attempting to steal a Mondrian. He needed the money to pay ransom for a cat that was stolen from his good friend Carolyn (Did I mention the wacky plots?) So Bernie and this other thief hit it off right away and become intimately acquainted on the carpet. His new paramour explains she was in the apartment to retrieve some intimate letters sent to the owner of the apartment with whom she is having an affair (did I mention wacky?) She is describes them to Bernie: "Lust letters is more like it. 'I wish I had your this in my that. I'd like to verb your noun until you verb.' That sort of thing." Now anyone reading this who filled in any kind of impure idea, remind yourself that you're the impure one, not the writer, because the writing is certainly innocuous and certainly couldn't refer to anything more than a lesson in grammar.Bernie solves the crime in a manner reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Nero Wolfe, the fat Rex Stout detective, by bringing the protagonists together at the end for the final revelations.
