Booked to Die by John Dunning

When I read an award winning author, one that comes to my attention with a strong recommendation from someone who loves crime novels, I wonder what sort of mood I must have been in not to like such a book. But, that was my experience with Booked to Die by John Dunning. His protagonist is an appealing guy, Cliff Janeway, a police detective with a hobby as a bookman who has dreamed of owning his own bookstore so he could deal in rare and first editions, his true love. When Bobby Westfall, one of his bookman associates is killed, Janeway goes over the top to bring justice to the story, unconventionally going after arch bad buy, Jackie Newton. So, we have a rogue detective and bibliophile, a good bad guy, interesting friends, and a love interest as well. What could go wrong? The dialogue was sometimes good, but it also was sometimes mushy, not the crisp sort of interchanges that I’ve come to value. The plot got a touch convoluted at the end, and I found a couple of the characters to be unbelievable, including Newton and Rita McKinley. On the other hand, Janeway’s relationship with Elspeth Pride was very well portrayed. Too bad Dunning decided to kill her off. This book was not a page-turner since it took me several days to read it. It’s disappointing since this one is the first in a series, and I’m not tempted to pick up the second one. Oh well. My reading queue is long enough.