Another RL book group read. It is a mystery and the start of a series about a Denver police officer who is also interested in collecting books. The mystery/murder is also involved with books, and there is interesting information about book collecting.

Unfortunately, I have no interest in, or understanding of someone who will spend hundreds or thousands for a book and then put it on the shelf and not read it, rather than buy many, many cheap books with the same amount, and read them all,

I didn't care much for the POV character. He is what I call a side-of-beef. He thinks everything can be solved with violence and is interested in being tough and manly, rather than being a person.

I also didn't like the way the author ruined the POV's intimate relationship with 2 women. The author obviously thinks they are not real people and only window dressing. Finally he also kills off the only really interesting character in the story, yep another pesky female.

There is a continuity error in how something is explained: The man with the expensive books switched houses with his neighbor who had book club editions. The appraiser went to the wrong house, didn't realize it, and appraised the collection as worthless. The man who died, gave the fake appraisal to his heirs.

The author forgot that the dead man had a printed listing of every book club book owned, with dates read, and notes in the margin, in the file cabinet in the house. The heirs both identified the handwriting as their father's, the dead man. He also had been collecting books 20 years longer than the neighbor with the book club editions. So how did the 20 year longer listing of book club editions with the dead man's writing on it, exist, since the book club editions were his neighbors, and 20 years shorter ?

I thought the book was written well, and it kept my interest. I won't be reading further in the series however. Just not my cup of tea. ( )

Fiction, mystery, books ( )

If you enjoy mysteries, this is an interesting read. The main character is a police officer who becomes a bookseller, solving a mystery as he becomes more involved in the book world. Dunning mentions a lot of titles to fill up your reading list. Booked to Die is part of the Cliff Janeway series.

If I really wanted to know this much about bookselling and the calculation of prices of rare books I think I would have used another way to find out. This is a book where the author really did write about what he knew, and boy does he know a lot about bookselling.

A bookscout is found dead and Detective Cliff Janeway investigates, not only is he a detective but he's also a book collector of sorts. The investigation leads him into all sorts of trouble and he has to make some choices about his life.

Interesting but after a while I really didn't care. ( )

I enjoy Dunning's books involving Cliff Janeway because the mysteries revolve around rare book fanatics. I enjoy characters who have a passion for something. This book had a nice little twist at the end, too. ( )