A Rare Book Mystery

Sunday afternoon, I snuggled under a quilt in the slatted shadows of our new blinds and read several chapters of The Bookwoman's Last Fling by John Dunning. The story is told from the first person perspective of Cliff Janeway, a homicide cop turned book collector who investigates cases involving rare books. In this book, he's been hired by members of a wealthy family who are also race horse owners. Quite a combination......horse racing and book collecting.

Anyway, the author set up what I thought was a cleverly amusing scene......Cliff Janeway was doing surveillance on a suspect who was sitting in a restaurant. Janeway had to watch him from across the street and ducked into a shop from which to do so. It turned out to be a thrift shop and Janeway found himself right next to a shelf of used books, which proved to be quite a distraction for him. He was torn between watching the suspect and examining the shelf of old books! Just a really clever scene, I thought. That would be my luck......to have to keep an eye on someone in a Goodwill Store or at a rummage sale.......the suspect would get away for sure!

Speaking of rare books.......I have been on the trail of one from my childhood. It is Pitidoe the Colormaker, by Glenn Dines. I put a request for it on eBay and with an online book dealer, but have had no success. Its not a terribly important matter, and I'll just keep on looking, but if anyone reading this knows of a copy in existence, please let me know.