Cliff Janeway’s girlfriend Erin asks him to go to a small Colorado town to look at some books. They belonged to Bobby Marshall, who was just murdered. His wife Laura is the chief suspect. Erin used to be friends with Laura until she stole Bobby from her. But Laura has asked Erin to take the case.

Janeway soon figures out that something is amiss. It seems that Laura is covering up for the real murderer, her 11-year-old autistic son Jerry. As he investigates, he discovers that the books are all autographed, and that the autographs are all fakes. He tracks down Bobby’s accomplices in the scheme, but they didn’t commit the murder. Could it have been the corrupt local deputy? When he turns up dead also, Janeway suddenly realizes that Laura murdered Bobby (and made it look like Jerry did it) and the deputy. And now she’s got Erin. Janeway rushes to the house and manages to shoot Laura, but not before Laura shoots and seriously injures both of them. Jerry’s involvement was simply his savant ability to fake anyone’s signature.

Too complicated, with very little to do with books. The whole deal with Bobby’s cohorts in the book signing scheme took up half the book and had nothing to do with the outcome.