posted on 09 Feb 2022

Bookscout by John Dunning

Dunning, journalist, book dealer and novelist, is the author of some of the most well-regarded biblio-thrillers on the market. He created the ex-policeman-cum-book dealer, Cliff Janeway and gave him five instalments before he simply stopped – much to the chagrin of his fans who would have gone on welcoming more and more of the book-selling sleuth.

Such was Dunning’s popularity that even the slimmest offerings are pounced on as long as they have a book-related theme. As a consequence, Bookscout, which is nothing more than a short story, found its way into publication as a slender card-covered booklet (which has to make its way from the USA) and makes a popular electronic download for those who can bear to read off a screen (which rules me out).

I think Bookscout was written prior to the release of the first Janeway novel but was first published in 1998 – which locates it six years after the landmark Booked To Die. It is a bitter-sweet story of a man who, like Dunning had himself at one time, makes his living as a bookscout. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, a bookscout is someone who combs local junk or charity shops, yard sales, flea markets and the like for collectable books that can be sold for an immediate profit to second hand book shop owners. It’s a precarious existence where the rewards are modest and the search for ‘the big one’ is always the grail that is just out of reach.

Joel Beer scatches his living as a bookscout in Denver, where he lives in a state of constant semi-squalor. Beer has established a daily round of shops he haunts for his bargains but, inevitably, he’s not the only one trying to eke out a living doing this. Somewhere along the line he’s acquired a companion, Lacy who offers him company but is too dim to be much help on the bookscouting front. Lacy was homeless when Beer offered him a settee to sleep on and since that moment the two have stayed flatsharers.

Competition for the best pickings can be fierce, even violent, and Beer’s major competitor is the belligerent Popeye, another bookscout who isn’t shy of using his physical presence to intimidate his opponents. So when Beer and Lacy finally hit the motherload, in the form of a whole basement of collectable books, the only fly in the ointment is the lurking Popeye who has his eye on the same treasure.

As the men hurriedly scan the shelves for the best examples both spot the extraordinarily rare Something For Nothing by an author called Walter Behr and both men lunge for this almost perfect copy of this desirable first novel. Between them Beer and Lacy outwit the belligerent Popeye and head off to their favourite book store to sell their booty.

This is a book that will, if they sell it well, set them up financially for quite a while – so why is Beer so reluctant to let it go?

There’s a nice little twist in the story that answers this seeming conundrum and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’m not going to reveal here what that twist is because you’ll want to find out for yourself.

The story only runs to 24 or 25 pages and, in truth, it’s likely to appeal mostly to those who just can’t get enough of stories about bibliophiles and the workings of the book world – especially as you’ll have to pay the best part of £30 to ship one in from the States.

 

Terry Potter

February 2022