The Bookwoman's Last Fling

Cliff Janeway is hired to assess the value of a book collection of a recently deceased eccentric. The story gets more complex as it turns out the collection was started by the young wife of the deceased. She had died of complications from a peanut allergy many years before. Janeway can’t work with the estate’s manager and contacts the daughter of the decedent. It turns out she is also a bibliophile and believes her mother was murdered. Race horses play a central role in the story. Janeway decides to investigate the death of the young Walkman even though it happened twenty years earlier. It turns out that he starts his investigation by working with the race horses. He gradually collects evidence and the solution to the mystery came show more as a surprise to me. Janeway tells his story in a way that brings the characters to life and keeps the reader engaged. I say Janeway because the story is told from his perspective. I thought I had read all of the Janeway stories but this one had slipped under my radar. Glad I finally discovered it in the process of rereading the series. show less

Cliff Janeway was a homicide cop. Now he's a bookman--a rare book dealer--in Denver, who scouts out and sells rare books, appraises collections, and oh yes, investigates the occasional book-related murder. Indeed, a love of books can be that dangerous.

The Bookwoman's Last Fling finds Janeway called out to a horse farm in Idaho to assess a library. Patriarch H. R. Geiger has recently died and Junior Willis--for three decades Geiger's right hand man, horse trainer, and now executor of his will--has been tasked with tracking down several volumes from the late Candice Geiger's library which have gone missing over recent years. Candice has been dead for thirty years, but despite the missing tomes her library stands as one of the finest show more collections of classic children's literature to be found. Janeway learns, as well, that there is some mystery surrounding Candice's death, although it had been ruled an accident--she died of an allergic reaction to peanuts--at the time. Some called it suicide; after all, she knew what foods to avoid too well to have eaten any of them accidentally, and she kept an emergency kit at hand at all times, as well. Some whispered about murder, although who would have wanted to murder this lovely, bookish, horse-loving woman none could say.

To investigate the missing books Janeway immerses himself in the world of horse racing. He goes out on the circuit, getting himself hired on to walk hot horses, and in the process gets to know the people who knew the people who surrounded Candice Geiger, putting himself in danger more than once as he gets closer to the truth.

In addition to his deep knowledge of books and the book world, Dunning has first-hand knowledge of the world of horse racing, and writes of it with loving and fascinating detail. He tosses around horse and racing jargon (and thankfully defines it), and beautifully portrays the camaraderie of the shedrow, an insular world of horse lovers which is lavishly salted with misfits and eccentrics of all sorts. And he writes a damned good mystery in the process. show less

[This is a review I wrote in 2008]

** Another Brilliant Book-ish Whodunnit - but this time with a horse racing twist!**

Yet another page-turning, intriguing crime story in the Bookman series by John Dunning. This one is quite different to those that have gone before, in that in this novel Cliff Janeway turns his hand to "walking hots" on a racetrack (cooling down hot horses that have just exercised or run a race). It's quite a lot like reading a Dick Francis, with a lot of information about the racetrack and racing, but there is still a book-related plot running through the book - this time mostly on the theme of collectable children's books.

Cliff Janeway, the Denver bookman, is as appealing as ever, and still can't give up his ex-cop show more past to concentrate solely on his bookstore. When a wealthy horse trainer H. R. Geiger dies, Janeway is asked to investigate his late wife's legacy of rare 1st edition children's books. Janeway soon discovers that a number of her books have been carefully stolen over time and replaced with cheaper imitation reprint editions. However, the waters soon muddy as other family members get involved and Janeway soons realises he might just be on the hunt for a killer too...

Brilliant! If you like books and you haven't come across this series before then start with the first one, 'The Sign of the Book'. The others are 'The Bookman's Promise', 'The Bookman's Wake', and 'Booked to Die'. show less

I was excited to find a nice first edition hardcover copy of John Dunning’s The Bookwoman’s Last Fling at a bargain table price a few weeks ago. Knowing how popular the previous four Cliff Janeway novels had been with book collectors did make me wonder at the time why such a nice copy of this 2006 novel was still available in mid-2008. Now I think that I can answer that question.

Cliff Janeway, bibliophile ex-cop turned bookstore owner/detective, finds himself in Idaho at the behest of the executor of the estate of H.R. Geiger, a wealthy racehorse owner, in order to appraise the dead man’s book collection. Geiger’s wife, who has been in her grave for two decades, had been an avid collector of juvenile fiction and she left behind show more a collection of some of the finest first editions of their type known to exist.

Janeway is quick, however, to notice that the collection is not what it appears to be at first glance. Rather, it is a combination of beautiful first editions set along side much more common later printings of other books of the genre. This is no surprise to the man who has asked him to appraise the collection because he already knows that many of the books have been stolen from the shelves and replaced by much less valuable editions. Janeway also realizes almost immediately that he and Junior Willis, the estate executor, have a tremendous personality conflict and that there is little chance he will ever be able to work for the man despite how badly he wants to study the collection’s finer books.

While waiting around to see if he and Junior can come to an agreement about the job, Janeway makes a fateful visit to the deceased woman’s daughter who is in possession of fifty percent of her mother’s books. There he learns that the daughter has long suspected that her mother had been murdered and he agrees to work for her, not only to discover who has been stealing from the collection, but also to determine whether or not her mother was murdered and, if so, who did it.

Janeway’s search leads him into the world of California horseracing and the bulk of the story takes place inside the racetracks where he is convinced the killer will be found. John Dunning has lived and worked in that world and he writes comfortably and capably about the experiences of those who work behind the scenes to make sure that all of that expensive horse flesh is ready to run when the gates fly open. He writes about it so well, and so comfortably, in fact, that The Bookwoman’s Last Fling reads far more like a Dick Francis novel than it does the next Cliff Janeway novel, ensuring disappointment for Dunning’s bibliophile fan base, especially those of us who are not particularly fans of Dick Francis mysteries even when they are penned by Dick Francis himself.

But even more irksome to me, personally, was what appears to be Dunning’s decision to play unfairly with his readers. This is, after all, a mystery and mystery writers know that their readers try to solve the mystery along with the fictional detective working the case. When all the provided clues end up leading nowhere because the murderer turns out to be a minor character thrown into the mix near the end of the book and the detective has nothing more to go on himself than a “feeling” about that character, the covenant between mystery writer and mystery reader has been broken. Such is the case here.

Cliff Janeway is an interesting character and I probably won’t let my disappointment with The Bookwoman’s Last Fling keep me from reading the next installment of his story, if there ever is one. But now I will definitely come to that one a little more skeptical about what I might find within its pages.

Rated at: 3.0 show less

Fifth and most recent (possibly the last, as I understand the author has had some serious medical problems recently) in the “Bookman” mystery series featuring Cliff Janeway, ex-cop and now bookstore owner/book dealer in Denver. I think this is my favorite Janeway book aside from the first one. I am not a big fan of (nor do I know much about) horse racing, but I learned a lot in this book. Janeway is contacted by an Idaho rancher, who inherited his wealthy boss’ book collection when he died. Or part of it—half went to his daughter, Sharon. But some of the books—hundreds of rare children’s books that were collected by the man’s wife Candice when she was alive—have gone missing and Junior Willis wants Janeway to see if he show more can figure out how and when. Once Junior and Janeway meet, the horse rancher/racer decides he doesn’t much like Janeway’s terms, but Janeway ends up staying on and working for Sharon—not only to find the missing books, but also to investigate Candice’s (her mother) death, which she has a wild hunch was not an accident as was presumed those many years ago. What a great book! Great storyline, wonderfully rich detail, immersion into the world of horse racing, and a mystery that I didn’t figure out. I was totally blindsided by the solution, which has me worried—two books in a row that I didn’t figure the mystery out. Am I losing my touch? LOL Probably not. More likely, Dunning is just a stellar plotter. show less

I always feel I should like John Dunning's books more than I do -- not that I don't like THE BOOKWOMAN"S LAST FLING -- I definitely wanted to read to the end, there were characters both engaging and enraging, and the behind-the-scenes racetrack setting put me right there with the dust and horse manure. Perhaps the Cliff Janeway series is one I should have read at one gulp. As it is, several years go by between my readings and I may thus lose the thread of the main character.

Janeway leaves Denver in this book for Idaho, where he has a rather vague assignment dealing with the rare books which are part of an estate. The dead man left four children from two marriages, generally at odds with each other. Some books are missing from the show more collection (which had really been collected by the second wife, long dead) and probate can't be completed until this is cleared up. The investigation will lead Janeway to more horse barns than bookrooms, and if I have one problem with the book, it's how far out in left field the villain comes from. If you like a truly ingenious surprise ending, this book is for you. For me, it was a little unbelievable, yet it was a good solid few hours of entertainment. Recommended with reservations. show less

3.5 stars
In a plot that mixes book collecting with horse racing, Cliff Janeway struggles to find the person who has pillaged a dead woman’s extraordinary collection of children’s books. He’s also struggling with whether he wants to be a book seller or a cop, and I think the character’s struggle may parallel the author’s struggle with what direction the series takes. Dunning is still able to craft a pretty good plot, but there are a lot of red herrings and the book just doesn’t capture the love of books and mystery that the earlier works did.