The Bibliomysteries of John Dunning

It was in the Book Farm at Henneker, New Hampshire in the mid 1990s that I was recommended to read John Dunning's 'Booked to Die' by the amiable owner, who ran this rambling store full of treasures deep in rural New England. This was good advice because John Dunning's books are a rare treat for all lovers of books and bookshops. 

Born in 1942, in Brooklyn, John Dunning moved to Denver, Colorado in his twenties and after working as a journalist and writer, opened the Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver in 1984. He resumed writing in the  early 1990s and created the hard-edged Cliff Janeway, a retired cop who has opened his own rare bookstore in Denver. The first of the series 'Booked to Die' contains all the features that make all these books so compelling for book lovers. Bookscout Bobby Westfall is found murdered. He was known to Janeway as someone with an extraordinary talent for hunting out precious volumes, which would end up in rare bookstores such as Janeway's. The killer is suspected by Janeway to be a villain known to him from his policing days. The story then moves through visits to booksellers in the high and low ends of the trade until the mystery is solved. Full of booklore and infused with a deep knowledge of the second hand book trade this was a very good start to the series.

'Booked to Die' appeared in 1992. In 'The Bookman's Wake' (1995) we are into the rarefied world of private presses, in this case the highly collectible Grayson Press, and in particular a supposed Grayson Press 1969 edition of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'. The problem is that the bibliography of the press does not mention this book, hence if it is a real book and does exist it would be worth a fortune to a collector. The hunt for the book takes Janeway on a tour of the book shops of Seattle in the company of a woman suspected of having stolen 'The Raven'. 'The Bookman's Wake' provides insights into the deep desire for possession that fine books can generate in those handling them and seeking them. 

'The Bookman's Promise' (2004) begins with Janeway buying at auction a signed first edition of a rare travel classic by Richard Francis Burton. The problem is that the ageing Josephine Gallant believes this copy is out of her grandfather's legendary Burton collection that mysteriously disappeared after his death. Janeway is assigned the task of finding this collection before Josephine Gallant dies and being an honourable bookman makes the promise to her that he will find the collection, which included Burton's handwritten Journal detailing an undercover trip he made into the American South in 1860. When a friend of Janeway's is murdered as a result of the search it becomes clear that forces to frustrate the finding of the Journal are at work. Dunning appends a short bibliography of books about Burton for those wishing to delve deeper.

In 'The Sign of the Book' (2005) we are into the world of signed editions and the enormous increase in value a book can have if it has been signed by the author. In this case a suspicious number of rare signatures have begun appearing on the market. The trouble is that the very best experts all confirm the signatures are genuine (and Dunning uses his knowledge of the book trade to introduce actual well respected book dealers into the story to act as verifiers). Of course the signatures are too good to be true, but there is a clever twist in the story to reveal how the deception was carried out.

With 'The Bookwoman's Last Fling' (2006) we reach the end of those so far published. Janeway is called to Idaho to look at a collection of children's books collected by the late Candice Geiger. The problem is that many valuable items in the collection have been replaced by cheap reprints. Janeway teams up with Candice's daughter Sharon to solve the mystery, but is concerned that she may be in danger because her house in Idaho contains half of her mother's valuable books. Sharon has a ranch in Idaho where she treats sick horses and in pursuit of the missing books Janeway has to become involved in the racehorse world travelling to racetracks to find links back to Sharon and the books. 

All the books were published by Scribner and paperback reprints of at least 'Booked to Die' could be found at Barnes and Noble in the years since the series terminated. Dunning seemed to be a frequent inscriber of his books and all of mine, bought in US bookstores, have been signed. Bibliomysteries are a fascinating subset of the crime genre and Dunning is not alone in being a bookseller/mystery writer, another being Roy Harley Lewis with the superbly titled 'A Cracking of Spines', but his combination of a deep knowledge of books and bookselling and the ability to tell a good story makes this series particularly impressive.