# Humorous mysteries similar to Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776 "2013-09-27T03:22:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/1 "2013-09-27T03:22:18Z")
I enjoy the humorous tone of Lawrence Block’s mysteries featuring “gentleman burglar” Bernie Rhodenbarr and his sidekick Carolyn - anyone have recommendations for something similar I might like? ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/2 "2013-09-27T05:58:17Z")
I remember the [Fletch books](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletch_(novel)) by Gregory McDonald as being funny. Not so much the movies. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/3 "2013-09-27T06:52:52Z")
For humor it’s hard to beat Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series of barely competent burglars. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/4 "2013-09-27T10:43:46Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > For humor it’s hard to beat Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series of barely competent burglars. They’re extremely competent. They’re just unlucky, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/5 "2013-09-27T12:20:40Z")
You might like at least some of Carl Hiaasen’s “black comedy” novels, set in his native south Florida, and involving a fair number of characters who are low-lifes, but nonetheless rather engaging. There comes to mind his “Native Tongue”, which features among other things, a couple of gentle and highly inept criminals, who are quickly recruited to “the side of the angels”. IMO Hiaasen’s novels are a mixture of hilarious comedy, and bitter satire: the latter revolving around what he sees as the ruining of his part of the world by the presence there of too many people, with the desire for a guaranteed too-high standard of living; and rampant corruption at the highest levels, reinforcing that trend to the nth degree. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/6 "2013-09-27T12:49:40Z")
Another humorous mystery series is Anne Green’s \*Southern Sisters \*series. Anne died a few years back, so they may not be in print any more. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/7 "2013-09-27T12:55:58Z")
I echo Westlake, and not just his Dortmunder series. He’s written other humorous crime fiction, such as _Trust Me on This_ about a scandal-sheet newspaper, and **Dancing Aztecs** which had me rolling with laughter. Janet Evanovich’s series about Stephanie Plum (staring with _One for the Money_) is also quite funny, although she’s the (incompetent) detective rather than the criminal. Also, Brian Wiprud writes some very amusing (and bizarre) crime stories, such as _Pipsqueak._ ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/8 "2013-09-27T14:24:05Z")
G. M. Ford’s Leo Waterman series is one of my favorites. Leo worked as a P.I. until his trust fund kicked in (dead dad was a big-time politician/gangster) but keeps getting sucked back in to the criminal underworld. He works in and around Seattle with a mostly homeless group of “assistants”. The first book is _Who In Hell Is Wanda Fuca_ (locals will get that right off :D). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/9 "2013-09-27T14:27:04Z")
Tim Dorsey’s _Serge Storms_ books. They start with **Florida Roadkill** and follow the goings-on that surround Serge Storms, the world’s most affable, inventive and lovable serial killer. And his pal Coleman. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/10 "2013-09-27T14:27:33Z")
Try the _Shlock Homes_ stories by Robert L. Fish. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/11 "2013-09-27T14:35:01Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > \Janet Evanovich’s series about Stephanie Plum (staring with _One for the Money_) is also quite funny, although she’s the (incompetent) detective rather than the criminal.\ I really enjoyed the first dozen or so but I gave up after 15, 16, 17? I can’t even remember. It seems to me that Evanovich is just phoning it in at this point. And the whole Joe or Ranger thing was annoying the hell out of me. (I just checked and she is up to 20 now? :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/12 "2013-09-27T14:43:30Z")
Simon Brett did a series about Charles Paris, a low-level actor in England, each one set in a different aspect of show business. Paris was a good actor but a sad sack for whom nothing ever worked out in life. Low-key humor in the same vein as Block. The closest thing to true screwball comedy in mysteries were Craig Rice’s John J. Malone mysteries. Rice was a pen name for a woman with a wild history - she was Gypsy Rose Lee’s press agent - and a penchant for drinking. Guess what her books are like? The better Malone books are set in 1940s Chicago but could be right out of the movie The Front Page. Everybody drinks, talks fast, and never stops moving while trying to stay one step ahead of the police solving really weird murders. Somewhat nastier is George Baxt’s Hollywood series, all of which had a title like The Movie Star Murder Case, substituting a different star for each one. He was a gay agent and writer and later started writing mysteries, including the first gay detective, Pharaoh Love. The Hollywood murder books are gloriously bitchy backstage humor, with lots of puns. The murders are beside the point, which is the bizarreness of the characters. The movie stars are the normal ones. Going to the other end of humor spectrum, somebody might like the Yellowthread Street of mysteries by William Marshall. They are set in Hong Kong before it was returned to the Chinese and feature the British police force trying to deal with the almost surreal mixed world that produced. Marshall wrote in a style like nobody else. And his cases are more surreal than anybody else’s. Black humor extraordinaire. One nitpick. It’s Schlock Homes. Absolutely the best parodies of Holmes, and for that matter of anybody in the field. The second best parodies are by Jon L. Breen, collected under the horrible title of Hair of the Sleuthhound. ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/13 "2013-09-27T15:13:57Z")
omg! I read one John J Malone book by Craig Rice and searched for more for _years_ (this was pre-internet). Thank you for reminding me, now I can look again. Also I _loved_ the Yellowthread Street mysteries, they were so WTF??! Half the time I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. They are indescribable and I read them all. I think. wow, thank you **Ex** , this is a great start of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/14 "2013-09-27T20:08:10Z")
There’s _The Road to Gandolfo_ by Robert Ludlum (originally published under the pseudonym Michael Shepherd). Ludlum generally wrote straight-up thrillers but apparently he was in a different mood when he wrote this humorous thriller about a plot to kidnap the Pope. (The Pope in the book, incidentally, is Francis I but it’s just a coincidence as the book was published in 1975.) There was a sequel, _The Road to Omaha_, but I haven’t read that. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/15 "2013-09-27T20:39:50Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Simon Brett did a series about Charles Paris, a low-level actor in England, each one set in a different aspect of show business. Paris was a good actor but a sad sack for whom nothing ever worked out in life. Low-key humor in the same vein as Block. I came in here to mention Charles Paris too. I think you may be giving him the benefit of the doubt calling him a “good actor,” however. Perhaps a solid journeyman actor might be a better description. He is definitely a flawed character. I would say the closest in style to Bernie, however, would be 1940’s Hollywood PI Toby Peters created by Stuart Kaminsky. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/16 "2013-09-27T20:45:47Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > They’re extremely competent. They’re just unlucky, that’s all. …and easily distracted. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/17 "2013-09-27T20:58:51Z")
Almost forgot the Loyjoy series. It was very amusing on TV with Ian McShane as Lovejoy, but they were very good novels too, written by Johnathan Grant ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/18 "2013-09-27T22:24:13Z")
I’ll second the Westlake books (the first of the Dortmunder stories was _The Hot Rock_). He also wrote serious books - _The Hunter_, published under the pseudonym Richard Stark, was the basis for the Mel Gibson movie _Payback_. The Marcus Didius Falco books, by Lindsey Davis, tend to include a lot of humor; the first was _The Silver Pigs_. (This is one series where it’s helpful, though not necessary, to read the books in order - there’s quite a bit of character development through the series.) 21 books so far… Another series I really like is the Meg Langslow books, by Donna Andrews. The first book is _Murder with Peacocks_ (all of the titles refer to birds, and most of them are puns), and again it’s probably best to read them in order. #16 is coming out next month. And finally, my absolute favourite detective series: The 24 Asey Mayo books by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. They were written 1931-1951, there’s a lot of humour (she was fond of punning titles, too), and there’s no need to read them in order. The _Cape Cod Mystery_ (all of the stories are set on the Cape) was the first one. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/19 "2013-09-27T22:32:39Z")
Thanks to the board’s usual refusal to load until after the damn’ five-minute edit window was over: [Dortmunder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dortmunder#Appearances) [Marcus Didius Falco](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Davis#Marcus_Didius_Falco) [Meg Langslow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Andrews_(author)#The_Meg_Langslow_series) [Asey Mayo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Atwood_Taylor#Bibliography) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/20 "2013-09-27T23:00:12Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > And finally, my absolute favourite detective series: The 24 Asey Mayo books by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. They were written 1931-1951, there’s a lot of humour (she was fond of punning titles, too), and there’s no need to read them in order. The _Cape Cod Mystery_ (all of the stories are set on the Cape) was the first one. She also wrote eight books under the name of Alice Tilton about Leonidas Witherall, which are even funnier. They’ve all been reprinted under the Taylor name, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776.md?page=2)