The Burglar Takes a Cat

I began writing about Bernie Rhodenbarr in 1977, in Burglars Can't Be Choosers, and he evolved as the series grew. In the third volume, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, he acquired a secondhand bookstore (Barnegat Books) and a best friend (Carolyn Kaiser). And in 1994, in his sixth appearance in The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, his world grew to include a cat named Raffles.

More recently, my friend Ellen Datlow was putting together an anthology of cat stories, and I extracted that portion of Ted Williams—around 5000 words—wherein Raffles became a part of Bernie's life. She made good use of it, and it has since occurred to me to make it more widely available. If you already own The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, you already have this story; if not, here's your chance.