diff --git a/src/calibre/db/cli/cmd_search.py b/src/calibre/db/cli/cmd_search.py
index e386077b9a..246e230735 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/cli/cmd_search.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/cli/cmd_search.py
@@ -10,7 +10,13 @@ version = 0  # change this if you change signature of implementation()
 
 
 def implementation(db, notify_changes, query):
-    return db.search(query)
+    from calibre.utils.search_query_parser import ParseException
+    try:
+        return db.search(query)
+    except ParseException as err:
+        e = ValueError(_('Failed to parse search query: ({0}) with error: {1}').format(query, err))
+        e.suppress_traceback = True
+        raise e from err
 
 
 def option_parser(get_parser, args):
@@ -24,9 +30,9 @@ list of book ids matching the search expression. The output format is useful
 to feed into other commands that accept a list of ids as input.
 
 The search expression can be anything from calibre's powerful search query
-language, for example: {0}
+language, for example: %prog search {0}
 '''
-        ).format('author:asimov title:robot')
+        ).format('author:asimov \'title:"i robot"\'')
     )
     parser.add_option(
         '-l',
@@ -42,7 +48,12 @@ def main(opts, args, dbctx):
     if len(args) < 1:
         raise SystemExit(_('Error: You must specify the search expression'))
     q = ' '.join(args)
-    ids = dbctx.run('search', q)
+    try:
+        ids = dbctx.run('search', q)
+    except Exception as e:
+        if getattr(e, 'suppress_traceback', False):
+            raise SystemExit(str(e))
+        raise
     if not ids:
         raise SystemExit(_('No books matching the search expression:') + ' ' + q)
     ids = sorted(ids)
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/cli/main.py b/src/calibre/db/cli/main.py
index d3380341c7..1a1788f0e1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/cli/main.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/cli/main.py
@@ -213,7 +213,8 @@ class DBCtx(object):
             self.interpret_http_error(err)
             raise
         if 'err' in ans:
-            prints(ans['tb'])
+            if ans['tb']:
+                prints(ans['tb'])
             raise SystemExit(ans['err'])
         return ans['result']
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/srv/cdb.py b/src/calibre/srv/cdb.py
index 333a31d096..02842ca915 100644
--- a/src/calibre/srv/cdb.py
+++ b/src/calibre/srv/cdb.py
@@ -56,8 +56,11 @@ def cdb_run(ctx, rd, which, version):
     try:
         result = m.implementation(db, partial(ctx.notify_changes, db.backend.library_path), *args)
     except Exception as err:
-        import traceback
-        return {'err': as_unicode(err), 'tb': traceback.format_exc()}
+        tb = ''
+        if not getattr(err, 'suppress_traceback', False):
+            import traceback
+            tb = traceback.format_exc()
+        return {'err': as_unicode(err), 'tb': tb}
     return {'result': result}