Recently read: John Dunning’s the Sign of the Book

Yet another one of Dunning’s erudite masterpieces featuring Cliff Janeway and plenty of books. Janeway and his lover, attorney Erin D’Angelo, head west from Denver to the tiny backcountry town of Paradise, Colorado. D’Angelo’s old friend, with whom she hasn’t talked since college, is in jail, accused of murdering her husband—who was once D’Angelo’s fiancé. The dead man was a collector with quite a library, and Erin convinces Janeway to suss the situation out as well as to get a sense of the worth of the books. A hometown lawyer provides invaluable assistance, a vicious deputy turns into a loose cannon, a weird preacher and his two redneck assistants seem to be connected to the victim, and the old friend confesses, but no one believes her because wouldn’t a mother confess to save her emotional disturbed son? Hard to put this one down.