Customer Reviews

Booked Twice: Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake

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There has been a lot of talk among bibliophiles about these books and their subject matter. Rare books and their values are instrumental in their plots. What those people usually leave out in their recommendations, however, is that these are two excellent mysteries.

In Booked to Die, Cliff Janeway is a cop with a problem. He knows who is pulling a string of derelict murders--his old nemesis Jackie Newton--but he can't pin the crimes on him. Up comes a new victim, a local bookscout that Janeway recognized from the street, and Janeway thinks he has Newton cold--except that Newton has an alibi in one Barbara Crowell, who was with him from 3:00 the previous afternoon.

The Bookman's Wake focuses on a long-thought-lost special printing of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, which Janeway is hired to find. Along the way he meets a woman named Eleanor Rigby and things just get more confusing from there.

To say more would give too much away. But these are definitely two mysteries worth reading. All the information on the book world is simply a bonus for bibliophiles.

Janeway is a very interesting character--a cop, then a detective, and a book lover. Author John Dunning also owned a book shop for ten years and still runs a first-edition-only business from his home. I recommend these books to people interested in books as a commodity, but also to anyone who likes a good mystery. For once (well, twice), I was satisfied with an ending.

I was told about Dunning's mystery series by a good friend -- and fellow book lover -- and found this omnibus edition of the first two novels a great way to get a feel for the author's storytelling skills (they're remarkable), the main character's back story (it's quite interesting), and read two interesting mysteries involving one of my favorite pastimes -- browsing for treasures in used bookstores. Dunning is obviously quite knowledgeable about the used book market, and he has written a gritty, engrossing, and at times amusing account of the trials and travails of Cliff Janeway, a former cop turned used book seller. If you are in anyway interested in books -- as a reader and as a collector -- this series is sure to please and certain to provide hours of edification of the fine, wonderful, world of owning collectable books.

About these two novels . . .
Dunning's first novel, Booked to Die introduces us to his indominable lead character, Cliff Janeway. He's a tough, honest, principled cop in Denver who has a passion for collecting books and a long-standing personal vendetta against a local thug, Jackie Newton. When a local vagrant is found beaten to death, Jackie Newton appears to be the most likely suspect, but Janeway finds he's unable prove anything. After a violent clash with Newton, Janeway realizes that his career as a cop is over, and decides to open a used bookstore. Janeway is happy and even hires a young woman to be his assistant, Miss Pride. But, his comfortable complaciency is suddenly shattered when Janeway discovers Miss Pride and a ne'r-do-well bookscout summarily executed in his store, and he's certain that Newton's behind it.
In a good mystery, nothing is ever as simple as it seems on page 200 . . . By the end of the novel, Janeway cleverly discovers who was behind the brutal deaths of three people and why, and even more importantly, he has won this reader's admiration as a top-notch, cop-turned-bookseller that you want to get to know even better.
Which is why this volume is such a treat. Finish one novel and there's a second one immediately after it. In The Bookman's Wake, Janeway must stay several steps ahead of a murderous thug who is after a previously unknown rare, limited edition of The Raven, by Edgar A. Poe. This novel is a vivd portrayal of genius turn to murderous hubris. The high-stakes risks taken by Janeway and his associates are duly rewarded in the end, and the reader of this novel will be, too.

Dunnings style and easy reading vocabulary make his books great relaxing and interesting material. He is fast becoming one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend his work.

Both of these detective stories have received loud kudos as genre fiction. For me the real delight is in the wealth of accurate booklore of the antiquarian book trade that they contain. The stories are certainly page-turners and tightly plotted (The Bookman's Wake is a little byzantine at times with some contrived tension-building delays). The book trade and bookstore atmosphere, however, is so authentic that the line between factual information and cleverly constructed fictional situation is intriguingly blurry!

This book is golden because it combines the first two novels in Dunning's Bookman series. The first chronicles Homocide Detective Cliff Janeway's career in the Denver Police Department--where he is compelled to deal out his own two fisted brand of justice to the bad guys and women are drawn by his tough but tender personality--to his new occupation as bookstore owner. And who could have guessed the bookstore business could have so much mystery and intrigue? Not to mention fabulous females.
The second novel lures now former detective Janeway to the dark and rainy streets of Seattle where he must solve a decades old mystery of missing books and murder. But first he must determine if the woman he's trying to protect is actually the perpetrator he's after.
Cliff Janeway is the kind of guy that men want to be like and women want to be with; he is a character with old-fashioned values that combine the charm of Bogart's Sam Spade along with the moxie of Steve McQueen's Bullitt.
Reading Dunning is like watching classic film noir. His writing is tight with often witty dialogue that always entertains. He is recognized and highly regarded by his industry and admired by his readers for his talent to paint masterpieces with words. Readers will enjoy his well researched work as he takes them on an exciting roller coaster ride through dark alleys, even darker neighborhoods and encounters with cold blooded killers.

While BOOKED TO DIE and it's immediate follow-up BOOKMAN'S WAKE are not particularly colorful or memorable they give the outsider painless lessons in book collecting. If you think that collectable books are only the old and battered ones, you definitely need to read these books. If you've never heard of a book scout, who knows... you may discover your next career.

The author is a servicable writer with a disciplined style. The characters are little more than sketches. The stories about a crime-solving rare books dealer move along but not at a heart-pounding pace. The motives are based on the dynamics of book collecting -- and how dynamic can that be?

The first is set in Denver -- the author's home town. The second is set in my home town of Seattle. Not much of a sense of the two environments emerge. It's like seeing the world thru the window of a bookstore. And for some of us, that's just fine.

I've always loved being told or reading good stories, and these are good ones.