Reviews

I couldn’t get over the misogyny in the writing: “All the liberties were crazy. And Jeanie, my mother, was probably certifiable. It was Jeanie I think who caused me to distrust beautiful women. I’ll take brains, heart, and wit over beauty every time out. What’s amazing is how well I survive their best efforts to tear me apart, how in spite of them I’ve turned out so well adjusted and sane. So normal.” and “A school girl giggle lit her up and made her young again”

carolynf's review against another edition

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3.0

I like that the detective is into old books, but the characters are completely black and white, and the author comes right out and tells you everything about them. You don't learn about the characters gradually through inferences in the action. Lazy!

jrobinw's review against another edition

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2.0

Like reading about rare books, but don't care for Dunning ' s style.

inthecommonhours's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm guessing on the year, but it was definitely BK---before kids. Completely forgot about this one, until The Book Thief title reminded me. A librarian friend recommended it, even though I normally don't enjoy mysteries. The antiquarian book world background pulled me in, and Dunning does a great job with characters and dialogue. Total fun read. Second one wasn't as good---but I'm looking forward to the next two that are already out there.

dlmoldovan's review against another edition

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4.0

started off slow, but a good read nonetheless. how can you not enjoy a book that combines mystery, detectives and collecting books?

muddypuddle's review against another edition

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5.0

As I first began reading this, even though I knew it was a "bibliomystery" (love that word!), the fact that it was a contemporary mystery from over 20 years ago put me off a bit, I'm not sure why. However, it didn't take long for me to become entirely engrossed. There's mystery; and submystery; and the fun of building up a new bookselling enterprise; and insight into the book-buying buisiness; and lots of intricate, interesting, well-fleshed-out characters in a fascinating setting (Denver). I couldn't put it down (read/listened to the entire thing over a 24-hour period) and now I want more. As fast-paced as it was, I don't think Mr. Dunning missed a trick. Excellent storytelling, plotting, characterization. Loved it.

cheryl6of8's review

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3.0

This book was strongly recommended to me by MaryZee, a book loving friend, the last time I saw her before she died. She picked it from the shelf of The Book Thing of Baltimore and handed it to me and told me to read it. A few weeks later she died -- and now 9 years have passed.

I pulled this from my shelf to read and add to the Bookish Book Box I run in her memory. But I found the first few pages slow reading and the book box was full, so I held onto it. I am not a hardboiled detective fiction fan and Janeway has a lot of that in him (but I love the name because of Voyager, so that's something). It was the book lover's aspect of the story and Maryzee's recommendation that kept me going. I will say that I appreciated that the descriptions of sex and violence were minimal. The book value part was over my head, though, because I value books for their contents. The mystery aspect was well done and the pacing picked up after the first 40 pages. I don't know that I would seek out any others in the series, but I would probably read them if they crossed my path.

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