# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/21 "2013-09-28T01:22:29Z")
Thanks all for the many suggestions to check out! - I’ve started Westlake’s “The Hot Rock” today and am really enjoying it. ---
**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 28, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/22 "2013-09-28T01:27:22Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > 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. I’ve heard of those, but never read any of them. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/23 "2013-09-28T07:29:20Z")
Another Westlake book worth looking up is _High Adventure_, involving pre-Columbian artifact smuggling in Belize, with some hilarious characters. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/24 "2013-09-28T10:50:19Z")
Damon Runyon still can’t be beat. ---
**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 28, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/25 "2013-09-28T15:08:22Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Damon Runyon still can’t be beat. For his humorous mysteries? Could you name them? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/26 "2013-09-28T18:10:21Z")
Sharyn McCrumb’s [Bimbos of the Death Su](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbos_of_the_Death_Sun)n is a humorous SF novel set in a science fiction convention. It won the 1988 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original and I found it an amusing read. She wrote a followup called “Zombies of the Genie Pool” that just wasn’t as good as the original, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![just\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@just\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/just_j)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/27 "2013-09-28T23:27:01Z")
The plots cannot be called humorous, but Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels have some of the cleverest dialogue I have ever read in any genre. Maybe it’s just me, but Spenser and Hawk make me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/28 "2013-09-29T05:57:06Z")
Whoops. “Bimbos of the Death Sun” is a humorous \*\*MYSTERY \*\*novel. Oops. And I’ll second the nomination of the Spenser novels for wit. Some of those lines are hilarious. “He’s so low he’d fuck a snake if he could get someone to hold it down for him.” ---
**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 29, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/29 "2013-09-29T12:59:16Z")
> [@just\_j](#): > > The plots cannot be called humorous, but Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels have some of the cleverest dialogue I have ever read in any genre. Maybe it’s just me, but Spenser and Hawk make me laugh out loud. I found them extremely predictable and repetitive. Good buds making jokes about racism only goes so far, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/30 "2013-09-29T13:42:43Z")
Second anything by Carl Hiaasen. Probably because I’m a dog lover and sometimes need a light, fast mystery, the Chet and Bernie series by Spencer Quinn. Bernie is a PI and Chet is his mixed-breed dog who narrates the books. Always fun and the dog reminds me sometimes of Enzo from _Art of Racing in the Rain_. ---
**Author:** ![snuffleupagus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@snuffleupagus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snuffleupagus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/31 "2013-09-29T18:24:34Z")
I read a whole slew of lighthearted humorous mysteries (of the chick lit/Stephanie Plum genre), my favorite off the top of my head is the[Jaine Austen series by Laura Levine](http://www.lauralevinemysteries.com/books.htm). They are all laugh out loud funny. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/32 "2013-09-30T17:45:59Z")
I’ve been enjoying Steve Hockensmith’s _Holmes on the Range_ series. > **[Holmes on the Range](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_on_the_Range)** > > Holmes on the Range (born February 7, 2006 in St. Martin's Minotaur) is the debut novel from Steve Hockensmith and introduced the characters of Gustav "Old Red" Amlingmeyer and his younger brother Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer. Mr. Hockensmith was a finalist for the Edgar Award for this novel. > In 1892, cowboy Gustav "Old Red" Amlingmeyer listens to a Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League" read by his younger brother Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer while on a cattle drive, and decides to follow i... ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/33 "2013-10-03T11:17:17Z")
[Reginald Hill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Hill)wrote two dozen books in the Dalziel and Pascoe series, British police procedurals set in Yorkshire. His writing is absolutely full of sly, gentle humour at the expense of characters and their interactions, and also, as British novels should, poking fun at the class system and society generally. A smaller series he wrote, about Joe Sixsmith, a beginning private detective is a bit broader in its humour. Both series work because he was one of those crime writers who wrote beautifully, and he created deeply affecting novels about humans who happened to be cops or criminals, and used humour to make it even richer. There’s much to enjoy in Carl Hiassen, and I’ll check out previous posters’ suggestions, but Hill shows you how subtle humour can add just as much punch as prat-falls. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776/34 "2013-10-03T20:08:27Z")
Nobody has mentioned Kinky Friedman yet? For shame. And Andrew Vachss has a delightful sense of humor, though his mysteries are very very dark. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humorous-mysteries-similar-to-lawrence-blocks-bernie-rhodenbarr-series/669776.md?page=1)