Meredith Monday Schwartz

Like the old paper, the...

maybe kind of like almost not messy, but like sometimes they're like untidy, like piles of books everywhere.

The knowledge that some of the books are worth more than like my car.

Then I think this particular book in the D.I.

Cross series is going to be good for you.

The Bookseller is the seventh book in the

the series.

And while it worked really well as my entry point into this world, I didn't intend to start at book number seven.

It made me, I liked it so much that I'm definitely planning to double back to the beginning because I need to get George Cross's whole story

I could tell with the bookseller that there was some context that I was missing and relationships that had developed over time.

But Sullivan writes these to function as standalones, and this one does.

But again, I liked the fact that I could tell that there were some things I was missing because I like a series that's written that way.

What makes this particular mystery so good is that setting that I was talking about.

The rare book world may seem quiet and genteel on the surface, but Sullivan reveals

but it is in fact a place full of passionate, ambitious characters who understand exactly what a valuable book is worth.

And their extensive reading means they know all the best ways to get away with murder.

We get to visit all these gorgeous bookshops, including ones in Cecil Court in London, which I loved because Betsy and I had just spent time there on our last trip overseas.

It was really fun walking those streets in the pages of this book.

George Cross is, as I said, an autistic detective whose neurodivergence is portrayed with authenticity and compassion and is not treated as a gimmick.

He can be abrupt, yes, his manner is infuriating to colleagues, but as with all of us, the things that make him different really are his superpower, and the series treats it as such.