Left Turn at Paradise by Thomas Shawver

First Line: I still see him before drifting off to sleep.

Michael Bevan has done everything he can think of to keep his used bookstore afloat, and just when he thinks he's going to have to call it quits, he takes another look at one of his finds. What he realizes makes his jaw drop-- the timeworn diary which dates back to 1768 looks to be a sailor's chronicle of the first of the three voyages the legendary Captain Cook made through the Pacific islands. If it's as valuable as he thinks it is, selling it may keep his bookstore open for another year.

When he meets a pair of London book dealers who claim to have the journal of Cook's second voyage, all three begin to speculate about a third which would tell all about Cook's third and final voyage when he met his death in Hawaii. All three volumes would be the nonpareil of Pacific exploration. Before Mike can take any action, the two journals are stolen, and he and the two London dealers find themselves on a deadly quest that takes them all the way to the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

Author Thomas Shawver knows how to grab my attention. Of course a book lover like me would like to read about an antiquarian bookseller, and Michael Bevan is just the sort of nuanced character that I like to follow. For being such a good guy, he's still made plenty of mistakes in his life, and he's still paying for some of them-- especially where his daughter is concerned. But he is trying, and he is also working hard to keep his bookstore a going concern.

Where Shawver really grabs my attention in Left Turn at Paradise is with the prize at the end of the chase: those three journals describing the voyages of Captain Cook. I came very close to drooling over the very thought of such books existing and of what a media sensation they would be. (I could even see myself buying my own copies if they were published.) As you can see, my imagination was well and truly hooked.

Where I began to slip off the hook was when Bevan and the other two dealers made their way to a secret Maori compound high in the mountains in New Zealand. The entire scenario was a bit over the top for me and severely strained my credulity with the leader of the Maori group and the actions of his minions. Be that as it may, I still found this book to be an enjoyable read, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series.

Left Turn at Paradise by Thomas Shawver

ASIN: B00IQROTNS

Random House/Alibi © 2014

eBook, 208 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #2 Rare Book mystery

Rating: B-

Source: NetGalley 

The Dirty Book Murder by Thomas Shawver

First Line: The young women disappeared, one after the other, a week apart.

Lawyer-turned-bookman Michael Bevan is a damaged soul whose wife's death sent him into a tailspin from which he's still recovering. He's found terra firma with his book business, and he's hoping to find some saleable books at a Kansas City auction house. The auction house has listed a collection of erotica, but Bevan doesn't expect to find anything worth his time. What he does find are exquisite Japanese Shunga scrolls and a first edition Colette novel that has an inscription by Ernest Hemingway-- in other words, the stuff of dreams.

Outbid by a stranger, Bevan rues his bad luck, but in an auction house fracas, he notices another book dealer steal the Colette novel. The next day, the thieving dealer is found dead, and Michael Bevan is the prime suspect. He's got to clear his name fast because he's pretty sure no one is going to let him sell books out of his prison cell.

This slim little volume in the Random House Alibi eBook mystery line, could almost be called a ringer. With its cover and its title, I expected something light and almost frivolous, but the bookman angle intrigued me so I decided to give it a try. I'm very glad I did. This is a meaty tale of books, damaged souls, darkness and perversion. When I finished reading, my first thought was that I wanted more.

The author knows his Kansas City setting, and his background of the military, the law, and books mirrors that of his main character. There's the ring of truth in Shawver's pages that really hooked me. The characters are complex and show surprising sides of themselves as the book's tone changes from light to dark-- and the plot made me more tolerant of characters like Bevan's daughter who is Master Class at being bitchy and difficult. (Actually, it was more than the plot; it had a lot to do with Shawver's skill in characterization.)

More than anything else, The Dirty Book Murder reminded me of John Dunning's superb Cliff Janeway series. When Dunning stopped writing those books, he left a gaping hole in crime fiction. What I experienced in reading this book leads me to hope that Thomas Shawver, with his own characters, his own experiences, and his own knowledge of books, will pick up Dunning's baton and lead the way to reading nirvana.

The Dirty Book Murder by Thomas Shawver

ISBN: 9780804179270 

Alibi, a Division of Random House © 2014

eBook, 220 pages

Amateur Sleuth/Noir, #1 Rare Book mystery

Rating: B+

Source: NetGalley