The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis

Between 1977 and 1983, I wrote and published five books about the lighthearted and lightfingered Bernard Grimes Rhodenbarr, with his secondhand bookstore and his dogwashing buddy, Carolyn. It was 1994 before a sixth Burglar book came along, but by then I’d written a pair of short stories about our lad.

The first, “Like a Thief in the Night,” was exceptional in that it’s told from the point of view of the young woman who walks in on Bernie while he’s burgling a suite of midtown offices. (S…