The Sign of the Book

I just finished "The Sign of the Book". This was the fourth in a series about an ex-cop turned rare book dealer. The first was fascinating in its details about the book collecting world, and Cliff Janeway, the lead, was an interestingly tough/upright (if only a bit cliched) character.

By now, though, the series has run out of steam. For most of the book, this was a pretty good read -- John Dunning does know how to make you turn the pages -- but the ending was preposterous.

First of all, the "who" in the "whodunnit" was ridiculous. Worse was a looooong scene in which -- for no apparent or good reason -- the killer spent pages explaining everything that happened and why they did it. Yeesh.

This kind of scene felt cliched to me when I used to read it in The Hardy Boys.