Though this is the seventh in the DS George Cross series, it can be read as a standalone because it’s easy to pick up on the characters’ personalities, and their back stories are filled in smoothly and efficiently. It becomes clear immediately that Cross, a detective with the Bristol CID, is on the spectrum, but his abruptness and literal-mindedness don’t bother his colleagues and family. His colleagues, especially his partner, Josie Ottley, value his doggedness and insightfulness. Even his ambitious and none-too-brilliant DCI, Carson, has learned that what sound like challenges and maybe even insults from Cross, are just George being his usual blunt self.

On the home front, George lives with his beloved father, Raymond, his mother having left the family years before. Raymond is proud of George, and they have a regular routing of Chinese takeaway on Wednesday nights, George’s organ practice on Thursdays, and so on.

But George’s home and work routines are upset as the action begins. Raymond has a slow-growing lung tumor that he is insisting on having removed, despite his advanced age and the risk of surgical complications. George’s mother has returned to help out, which is fine with Raymond, but hard for George to process. At work, Josie has been promoted to DI, which usually means a move to a different job, maybe a different station. It’s been hard for George to get on with partners in the past, but he and Josie have worked well together. Now all that seems at risk. George has a lot on his mind, and not even a new and difficult murder case can completely occupy his attention.

After a pleasant auction trip to London, the elderly Torquil Squires returns after hours to his old bookshop, whose attic also includes a small apartment that he lives in. He’s shocked to discover his son, Ed, who also works in the bookshop, has been stabbed to death in the shop. When George and Josie arrive, they find Torquil’s grand-niece Persephone cowering behind the locked door of Torquil’s bathroom. She is able to provide some scant information about an overheard altercation and a man fleeing the scene. Interviews with Ed’s family, and the other bookshop employee, Sam, lead to the possible involvement of Russian mobsters and even skulduggery in the country’s book trade. It takes thorough and insightful work from George and Josie to find the killer—which requires stopping DCI Carson more than once jumping the gun and charging the wrong suspect.

The book has a mildly humorous tone and is a satisfying police procedural. George reminds me a little of Professor T on the mystery series of the same name.

Of course I found the title irresistible, and the premise was cool: bookseller found stabbed to death in a British vintage bookshop.
But the cast of characters was hard to keep track of-is this an aunt, or a stepmother? Brother or son?- and the reader is bounced between possible culprits like a ping pong ball.
I liked the main characters, though. One male investigator, clearly on the spectrum, and his female partner who's great at teaming up with him, despite his idiosyncracies.

This is my first DC Cross thriller. It's a great read for those looking for an easy to follow procedural, and reads well as a standalone. I'd heard a lot about this series and glad it can live up to the hype. The equal focus on the detectives personal life and the case at hand helped me engage with his idiosyncrasies, and who does not like a thriller set in the worlds of books? I learnt something new!

The first of this series I’ve read but will read more. Characters are well developed. I enjoyed George’s relationships with family and colleagues. Plot was well written with lots of twists

Thank you to Bloomsbury USA | Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the eARC. This is the seventh in the DS Cross books by Tim Sullivan.

DS Cross and his team are called to a local bookstore where the propreitor's son is found dead in an upstairs office. The owner, an elderly fellow, was away in London for the day attending an auction and visiting old haunts. He's in the process of retiring and handing the shop over to his now deceased son. It's a well respected business, and reputation is everything in the book trade. The detectives have trouble believing that the gentile world of books could harbour such resentment as to cause murder. Turns out there's more jealousy and deviousness in the book trade than in a good mystery novel. Also thrown into the mix is a personal situation that DS Cross must get to grips with.

DS George Cross is on the autism spectrum. He's challenged by interaction with the public and needs routine. He's learned to deal with the public the best he can in his job, aided by co-workers and his family. While it can easily be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading the entire series to understand how George has leaned to cope and understand all the character dynamics. This is a well written book with an interesting plot, and fascinating characters. 4 out of 5 stars.

I would rate this book a solid 4.5 starts. The series is very engaging. The stories are a slow burn, with solid detective work until the end.

Cross and Ottey are a strong team because she gets him and his quirks better than anyone else on the force. There are many changes to George’s personal and professional life which keep the series very engaging. His father’s illness causing unexpected changes to his solid and orderly life.

When Ed Squire is found dead in his book shop, there are a surprising number of suspects. The world of book collecting is exposed along with Ed’s personal life. Slowly and methodically George is able to peel back the layers to get at the truth from Ed’s family and coworkers.

I will continue to read this series. The end of the book hints at the possibility of George switching professions, but hopefully not yet. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read and review the latest installment in a series that I thoroughly enjoy.

The Bookseller is the first full length novel that I've read by Tim Sullivan, and I have have mixed feelings about the experience. On the one hand, the premise is intriguing, the main character is unique in his quirks and the other characters are well rounded and relatable, and the mystery to be solved has a good number of suspects with viable motives.
On the other hand, the book took me what seemed forever to get through. It is, in a word, slow. I'm usually a fast reader, but this book was such a slow build that I often considered putting it aside; however, its base storyline had me hooked and I persevered.
Will I read any more books by Sullivan? I'm not sure, but I doubt it. This one seemed too much like work in the end.
I do appreciate receiving the ARC of #TheBookseller from #NetGalley.

neurodivergent, secrets, bookseller, justice, family-business, family-drama, family-dynamics, family-expectations, relentless, unputdownable, crime-fiction, rare-books, procedural, murder-investigation, working-partners, middle-aged, sly-humor, British-detective, fractured-families*****

DS George Cross and his partner (recently promoted) DI Josie Ottey become entangled in the bewildering murder of a relatively quiet bookseller at the longtime family business owned by the 90-year-old patriarch. The case and the characters steadily become more complex and the mystery more compelling. I thought it did OK as a standalone as this is the first DS Cross mystery I've read and enjoyed.
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected ebook file from Bloomsbury USA | Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book via NetGalley. Pub Date Apr 15, 2025
#TheBookseller by #timsullivanauthor #DSCrossThrillersBk7 #headofzeus #bloomsburypublishing
#NetGalley #goodreads #bookbub #librarythingofficial #barnesandnoble ***** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #neurodivergentDetective #BritishDetective #MurderInvestigation #FamilyDrama

2 stars.

DS George Cross is investigating the case of a dead bookseller found in his bookshop in Bristol. What happened and why?

This is the seventh book in a series about the autistic detective; I had not heard of the books before. I only chose this because it is about a bookseller and a rare book.

I found this a bit dull. I kept forgetting who the characters were and I didn’t find Cross compelling enough nor a good enough police officer to put up with all his nonsense (given the way he treats his superintendent I’m surprised he still has a job.). Maybe I would have enjoyed this more if I had read some of the earlier books, for example there was clearly considerable backstory with his mother which went completely over my head.

I was not really a big fan of this book. The premise was pretty good, but the execution of it was not that great. the writing style was lacking, the descriptions were not descriptive

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review.

Book 7 in the DS Cross series, and this was actually the first one that I read. Enjoyed this so much that I now own all the others in the series. Cross is a rather unique detective who appears to be autistic - it may have been explained in prior books - he is a creature of habit with few social graces, and yet he is able to solve crimes by seeing, remembering and analyzing evidence that others miss. Here a bookseller is found dead on the floor of his rare book store. There are connections that lead this case in multiple directions and the solution of which is quite well plotted and disguised. I like the characters, and considering this is Book 7 of the series it certainly is easily read as a Stand Alone.

Who would kill a rare bookseller?

I am intrigued by DS George Cross. This is the seventh entry in the series but the first I have read. George’s idiosyncrasies are more understandable when you realize he is on the autism spectrum. While it is hard for him to relate to people, he is also very logical which assists in getting to the core of his cases. He knows that he sometimes misses social cues. He is learning how to respond in certain situations from his colleagues. His reactions amuses his colleagues at times but they also find them endearing.

DS George Cross and his partner, newly promoted DI Josie Ottey arrive at Squire’s Rare Books. Ed Squire, the current manager, is dead in a pool of blood. The body was discovered by his 90-year-old father and store owner, Torquil Squire. It is after hours, and the door is unlocked. The only other employee present was the niece of the dead bookseller. On the surface, this should be an easy case to solve. Yet, the suspect pool swirls with family connections, former partners, rival rare booksellers and a Russian oligarch. George has many avenues to investigate before discovering the root of the murder.

I liked that George has realistic characteristics of people with autism. George copes by making notes of appropriate social reactions. Some of the guidance from DI Ottey he implements with humorous results. George’s father has some serious health problems. This adds to George's stress during the investigation. George ponders his future with the police force. Even with all the clues dropped throughout the story, the ending still surprised me. This book can be read as a standalone, but I will be looking for the previous books in the series!

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

THE BOOKSELLER is the seventh novel in Tim Sullivan’s George Cross series, to be released on Kindle (and paperback) on January 16, 2025–an excellent way to get rid of the after-Christmas, mid-winter blues. It can be read as a standalone, or if you’re like me, a DS Cross devotee, as the next instalment in the protagonist’s complex life.

George is on the autism spectrum, which means he finds it difficult to relate to other people, although as the series has progressed, he has been learning how to better cope with the people surrounding him, thanks to the assistance of his colleagues. However, at the beginning of “The Bookseller”, George faces a crisis—his father has cancer. George’s father, Raymond, has been the one constant throughout George’s lifetime (George is now in his mid-fifties), and George cannot imagine an existence without him. His personal worries distract his attention from the murder case he is investigating.

The murdered man was a bookseller. Not someone who simply sold books, but someone who ferreted out rare books and manuscripts for wealthy clients. This is a strange world—people who buy books not to read but strictly to display, like paintings. From the beginning, I felt that the murdered man’s family was not telling the truth about everything, and to George’s credit, he felt so too, but instead of focusing on the family dynamics, he followed a wandering trail of possible suspects, including the bookseller’s main competitor and a bizarre Russian oligarch. Eventually, of course, George solves the case, and although I didn’t guess beforehand “who dun it”, I wasn’t surprised either. I did like the way that the bookseller’s business affairs were wrapped up—or to be more precise, his father’s business affairs were settled, because the business was owned by the murdered man’s 90-year-old father, who would no longer be able to pass the enterprise on to his son.

There is a lot of subtle humour in all the George Cross novels. Not laugh-out-loud humour, but understated whimsical humour that I really enjoy.

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA for providing an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.