Booked to Die: A Page-Turner With a Unique Twist

Last week was Living Donor Day! Find out more about organ donation in last week’s blog post and Unlawful Harvest, the first book in the Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thriller series.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

Booked to Die by John Dunning is the first book in the Cliff Janeway series. Janeway is a homicide cop with a personal vendetta against a man he knows to be a serial killer, but who keeps slipping through his fingers. He is on the hunt for the person responsible for the death of a book scout, who initially appeared to be another victim of the serial killer but was not. Janeway is a book collector himself and knows a lot of the players in the book sale business in the town, and he starts to make his rounds. But things happen and he ends up out of the police force and setting up shop as a bookseller.

What makes Booked to Die a compelling read is the author’s attention to detail when it comes to the rare book industry. Dunning’s experience as a Denver Post police reporter in the 1970s and his ongoing involvement in the used and rare book trade served as the inspiration for the Cliff Janeway novels. As a result, readers get a glimpse into the inner workings of the book sale business, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to the murder mystery.

I am still unwinding this mystery, but I would not hesitate to pick up another in the series.