Description:

From Booklist

Maintaining one's status as the galaxy's top-rated "allowed burglar" can have its share of annoying drawbacks, as Drake Maijstral quickly discovers in Williams' third adventure featuring the planet-hopping, aristocratic playboy. While vacationing on Earth at various regal comrades' estates, Drake falls victim to an unknown conspirator who robs each host of a prized possession and implicates Drake in the crimes. Besides fending off the ensuing challenges to duels to the death, Drake must contend with the kidnapping of his father's cryogenically preserved but still very outspoken corpse. Determined to rescue his sullied reputation as well as his father, Drake and his retinue of alien bodyguards and current love interests warm up his burglary skills and track his foe to--of all places!--the now vastly expanded, quasi-religious sanctuary of Graceland. Williams deftly juggles a medley of colorful plot elements, including a bizarre brotherhood of cloned Elvises. Carl Hays

Product Description

He's the Human Constellation's number-one-rated Allowed Burglar, one of a very select few permitted to rob the public and keep his plunder - provided he performs with style and avoids getting caught before the caper is broadcast galaxy-wide to his enormous audience.
Drake is so famous as an Allowed Burglar that he has been invited to join the Diadem, the group of celebrities who are well-known enough to need only one name, and whose every movement is recorded and broadcast, and sighed over by billions of humans and aliens in both the Empire and the Human Constellation. Maijstral has made himself a legend by declining to join.
But being Number One has its drawbacks. Suddenly you become the target of every other Allowed Burglar in the system. You can't go anywhere without being suspected of every theft that occurs, and your friends suddenly become all too cautious about their valuables.
And then there are the Duels. Drake Maijstral can tolerate the constant suspicion and the suddenly canceled invitations. But the challenges to fight to the death over imagined breaches of hospitality are too much for him.
The last straw comes when Drake himself is the victim of a burglary that is clearly a challenge to his status. Someone has stolen Drake's father's coffin, the hibernation module that maintains the old Duke in his status as Legally Dead. Clearly, something must be done.

From Publishers Weekly

Literate farce is still a scarcity in science fiction. That's why this third volume in the continuing series (after The Crown Jewels and House of Shards) about Majistral, the Number One-rated allowed burglar in the Human Constellation, is such an amusing find. In this adventure, Majistral is taking a vacation from burglary and is spending his leisure time on Earth. Unfortunately, no one believes he is not on the planet to steal something. His unusual profession does not deter several women from suing for his hand, including Roberta, the Dutchess of Benn, and Nicole, an intergalactic celebrity. They are both attractive women (and relatively intriguing characters), and what would be a most pleasant dilemma for Majistral is only overshadowed by the deadly duels to which his wealthy hosts keep challenging him. Moreover, his unswervingly loyal Khosalisk servant, Roman, is in a rotten mood because he's molting. But it is not until his father's coffin?from which the deceased manages to retain a tenuous grasp on current events?is stolen that things really become absurd. The plot moves briskly from underwater palaces to holy Graceland (a marvelously silly land practically overflowing with Elvii of all species, genders and sizes), and the whirlwind pace helps keep the novel entertaining, if not intellectually overtaxing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As the top-ranked Allowed Burglar of the Human Constellation, Drake Maijstral finds that his celebrity status leads him to four challenges to duel, three proposals of marriage, and the theft of his father's coffin. Only his cleverness and ingenuity enable him to uncover a conspiracy to destroy his reputation. Third in a series of far-future swashbuckling adventures, this sequel to The Crown Jewels (Tor Bks., 1987) reveals the author's flair for understated wit and delicate sarcasm. Known for his hard-biting cyberpunk novels, Williams deserves appreciation for his comedic fiction as well.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.