Denver [Mass Market Paperback]

John Dunning (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1982

Mass-market edition of early work by the author of the Cliff Janeway novels, among others.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Popular Library; Mass Paperback Edition edition (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0445047119
• ISBN-13: 978-0445047112
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,326,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Although I have been writing fiction since childhood (and publishing novels since 1975), it was BOOKED TO DIE (1992) that gave me the freedom to write full time. I have always written out of my own life. My Bookman novels came from my ongoing experience in the used and rare book trade, coupled with my life as a Denver Post police reporter in the 1970s. I have written five novels about my book detective, Cliff Janeway, including THE BOOKWOMAN'S LAST FLING, to be published by Scribner in May 2006.

We have lived in Denver, it seems, forever, though I am a refugee from Charleston, SC. I have also been a glass cutter, a groom at Santa Anita and other racetracks, a publicist for political candidates (which is the same general thing)and did a radio show for more than 20 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I expected better, April 15, 2011

By 

Frederick A. Smith (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Denver: A Novel (Paperback)

I debated with myself for a few days about writing this review. I really liked John Dunning's previous works, and looked forward to this novel with great anticipation. After finishing it, I didn't want the only review of this work to be negative; but since no one else has written one, I will start.
There is no need for a "Spoiler Alert" about how the book ends; because it realy doesn't have an ending. It just kind of stops. There are a lot of open issues that go unresolved.
There are too many characters for any of them to be developed successfully.
One relatively major character in the beginning of the novel sort of disappears, and never shows up again except in letters written to his father.
Others have their lives ended in ways that don't seem to be "in character", or plausible.
In my opinion, there were too many vignettes and encounters that added nothing to the novel (i.e. Calvin Coolidge), and took up pages that could have been better served on a more satisfying conclusion, or explanations for some other character's behavior.
It was a hate filled, corrupt and bleak time; but I got that in about 100 pages. The rest was just "piling on", for no apparent reason.
I hope someone else will read, and comment on this book; because Dunning is better than this, and maybe I missed the point.