Read The Sign of the Book by John Dunning

This site, the Blue Ogee, bills itself as exploring the intersection between the personal and the public in a virtual coffee shop/bookstore environment. Up to now most of the postings have tilted towards public issues of one kind or another.

But what do we do to refresh our spirits when the public issues seem almost too weighty or intractable?

I read. Since an early age, I have loved books. And in real life, I work in a real bookstore!

I am always on the lookout for a book that is challenging, not dumbed-down and that invites the reader into a credible imaginary world.

For most of my life I have read fiction--lots of fiction. But the mystery genre did not begin to attract me until a few years ago. And now I am trying to be a discerning reader in this genre.

So it was a wonderful discovery, almost serendipitous, when I chanced upon a crisp new copy of John Dunning's new bookman mystery, The Sign of the Book. The "bookman" is Cliff Janeway, an ex-cop who deals in rare books out of a dumpy little store on East Colfax in Denver.

The setting for this fourth bookman mystery is Paradise, Colorado, a gorgeous little town nestled in the Rockies. Janeway has been asked to investigate the murder of Bobby Marshall, a bookseller, by his hotshot lawyer lover, Erin D'Angelo. Bobby Marshall's wife, Laura (an old best friend of Erin's) has been accused of the crime.

Who killed Bobby Marshall? Was it Laura, who confessed? Was it his adopted autistic savant child? Was it a bookselling group of thugs run by a corrupted preacher?

And why does Janeway suspect that the large collection of signed books owned by the deceased hold the clue to his death?

Into this mix enters a series of other wonderfully etched characters: a tough local judge, a sadistic policeman, a good guy elder lawyer, the deceased's disfunctional parents and others.

This is a page turner. You will keep turning until the end to find out who the killer was and why.

In the meantime, you will learn a great deal about the rare and used book trade. Maybe it is because of this aspect of the Cliff Janeway series that has attracted so many people in the book trade to the bookman novels.

Go find The Sign of the Book by John Dunning at your local book store or library. Relax with it and then, if you want, share your comments about it with other Blue Ogee readers. By the way, the author, John Dunning, also deals in fine rare books and you can learn more about him from his www site at: www.oldalgonquin.com

P.S. I am backing up in the series and am reading The Bookman's Promise right now. You can never get too much of a good thing!