Why was Special Collections Librarian found dead in a garage with a priceless American imprint? A pair of thugs is suspected, but Cliff Dunbar believes that the book is the key to his friend's murder and investigates. Along the way he meets a glad-handing politician, an ex-madam, a Mafioso, a cowboy involved in rare books and a very nice proofreader. The story moves quickly and is mostly coherent, although I found the romance a bit pat and implausible. ( )

Enjoyable, though not aging terribly well. The treatment of minority characters is a bit dated, but not implausible. Cops not given the usual mystery novel treatment, which was refreshing. The biblio aspects of the story/ plot were very good, and one of the most enjoyable elements of the story, which isn't always true in bibliomysteries, unfortunately. There was one technical issue with how Harriss described foxing, but it does discuss printing, typography, binding, paper, earliest American printing, etc. ( )