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.