A distant ancestor of Bernie Rhodenbarr may be Robin Hood, but Bernie really steals for himself or his friends or to get himself out of trouble. A closer ancestor is A. F. Raffles, a gentleman jewel thief in England, created by E. W. Hornung, the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. The Saint, named Simon Templar, created by Leslie Charteris, is another good thief, who later in his career becomes a spy and a patriot. To Catch a Thief, first a motion picture (1955) with Cary Grant and then a television series involved a jewel thief, turned detective.

Some of Donald Westlake's novels, caper books, also feature the adventures of thieves, trying to make the big score.

This particular Burglar mystery situates itself in the framework of postmodernism in its heavy, self-conscious use of parody.

Here Block is parodying especially Agatha Christie as a writer of the English...