2008-09-18 Another Brilliant Book-ish Whodunnit - but this time with a horse racing twist!

Yet another page-turning, intriguing crime story in the Bookman series by John Dunning. This one is quite different to those that have gone before, in that in this novel Cliff Janeway turns his hand to "walking hots" on a racetrack (cooling down hot horses that have just exercised or run a race). It's quite a lot like reading a Dick Francis, with a lot of information about the racetrack and racing, but there is still a book-related plot running through the book - this time mostly on the theme of collectable children's books.

Cliff Janeway, the Denver bookman, is as appealing as ever, and still can't give up his ex-cop past to concentrate solely on his bookstore. When a wealthy horse trainer H. R. Geiger dies, Janeway is asked to investigate his late wife's legacy of rare 1st edition children's books. Janeway soon discovers that a number of her books have been carefully stolen over time and replaced with cheaper imitation reprint editions. However, the waters soon muddy as other family members get involved and Janeway soons realises he might just be on the hunt for a killer too...

Brilliant! If you like books and you haven't come across this series before then start with the first one, 'The Sign of the Book'. The others are 'The Bookman's Promise', 'The Bookman's Wake', and 'Booked to Die'.