Why I read it: It’s number five in the Cliff Janeway series about an ex-cop, rare-book collector.

Brief Summary: Janeway is hired to catalog the book collection of Candice Geiger, the wife of a race horse owner who just died. Candice herself died several years earlier, and Janeway’s investigation soon concentrates more on what happened to her than on the books. He gets hired as a walker at the race track and interviews everyone about Candice. His first suspects are Candice’s three sons, but one of them gets murdered and the others are clean.
In the end, Janeway finds out that Charlie, the husband of another owner is a bibliomaniac who runs a library and once had an affair with Candice. There’s a shoot-out at Candice’s daughter’s house, and Charlie is wounded. In the hospital, he confesses all — he loved Candice and her books, and when he realized he she didn’t love him in return, he killed her and stole some of her books.

What I liked about it: Not much. The allusions to rare books were scarce. Some of the descriptions of life behind the scenes at race tracks were interesting.

What I didn’t like about it: Books were only a device to get into the plot and didn’t factor in the story to any significant degree. The plot was overly-complicated and spent the first three-fourths of the book heading down plodding rabbit trails.

Recommendation: The series has promise, but isn’t living up to it.