Clever plot winds through lurid history of fine press publisher Grayson. Detective turned bookman Janeway follows arcane printing clues yielding bodies at every turn. Largely set in soggy Seattle to further darken the tone. Book collectors who like mysteries will enjoy immensely. ( )

The best in the series. Loved it as much the 2nd time as the first. ( )

Once again, here’s one for the dedicated, one for the book devotee – a second enthralling chapter in Denver ex-detective Cliff Janeway’s illuminating world of the bibliophile. At the same fast-paced, high-octane level as his first, John Dunning delivers another intriguing murder-mystery; embroiling our book-loving Cliff, in this instance, in the little-known sphere surrounding the peculiar vagaries of the printing, binding and publishing of rare first-editions.

So highly-prized and priced, so sought after and obsessively-hunted, is one small publishing house's creations from a master book designer – The Grayson Press; and yet someone is killing off all identified owners of these precious works; in particular the pressing, twenty years previous, of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Initially unbeknownst to Janeway, he becomes enmeshed in this torrid tale when, against his better judgement, he is contracted, for a tidy sum, by a former police colleague to collect bond-skip, Eleanor Rigby, from rain-soaked Seattle; the girl charged around the alleged theft of one of these books. Primarily interested due to the book angle, Janeway’s cop-radar is elevated to extreme danger when Eleanor is kidnapped out from under him and her trail continually uncovers a plethora of dead bodies, demonstrably linked to Grayson Press. And as Cliff Janeway attempts to liberate Eleanor from what he perceives as a life-threatening situation, he is drawn inexorably into the tangled web of the Grayson brothers and their ignominious legacy.

This really was an absorbing story in so many ways. Against the suitably miserable climate of sodden Seattle Janeway is allowed to slowly but shrewdly unveil the dismal truths behind this altogether sad and sorry tale. Reading more as an intelligent analysis of the foibles of the bibliophile-addict rather than a mere crime novel, in this book John Dunning cleverly captures the core of any book aficionado’s delight through his distinctive handle and elucidation of this world. But the noticeable pleasure materialises fully within an essence, concerning the many layers of book appreciation, purposely-built into the story-line; opinions, as this, utterly delightful: “Why is a book the only gift that the giver feels free and often compelled to deface before giving?"; and interspersed with absolute wit:
”You see anything?” Eleanor asked from the far corner.
“Four computer books, two copies of The Joy of Sex, and five million Stephen King derivatives.”
She sighed. “Put ‘em all together and what’ve you got?”
“Desk-top breeding by vampires.”

All told, this book worked for me on numerous levels. Again, I learnt so much. The ‘whodunit’ was dense enough to retain interest; the why and the wherefore, at times, mesmerising. But, to my mind, it is to the true book-enthusiast that the author connects effortlessly with. There is an adherence, a belief, behind this tale, seamlessly in accord with the actions of Janeway’s well-crafted character, which resonates impeccably with the thoughts of like-minded readers. On balance, you can take the detective out of the police force, but you can’t take the detective, or the bibliophile, out of Cliff Janeway. Nor would you want to. It’s a rather complementary, and very entertaining, correlation after all!

(July 15, 2009) ( )

Decent work. ( )

Booked to Die was great; this one almost is, but it didn't quite make it. The noir atmosphere has been retained from the first book and is superb. The problem is the plot itself; the premise is odd, I think, and not as strong as I like to see in a good mystery novel. Still, it's a page-turner, and the story of the Grayson Press was so fascinating I wish it were real. Definitely worth reading, even if it can't top the original. ( )