Customer Reviews

The Bookman's Promise

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Leave it to John Dunning to remind modern readers that there was more than just one Richard Burton...not just the 20th century award-winning thespian (and husband to Liz Taylor), but also a fascinating, 19th century explorer, knighted by the British for his anthropological discoveries, his books, and his work as a linguist as he traveled the globe. Dunning weaves flashbacks of Burton's tour of the American south just before the Civil War into his modern-day tale about a hero we've been waiting to see again, rare bookseller and ex-policeman Cliff Janeway.

Janeway, as you may or may not recall, is the centerpiece of two of Dunning's earlier works, which established a mini-cult for readers, proving, once and for all, that there is nothing booklovers love more than reading about books. It has been eight years since Dunning followed the success of Booked To Die, Janeway's first outing, with The Bookman's Wake. Mystery readers around the globe waited somewhat impatiently for Dunning's alter-ego (he, too, sold rare books) to reappear. The wait was worth it.

In The Bookman's Promise, Janeway has purchased a first edition of Sir Richard Burton's, and the rare book leads him on a quest to find a missing collection of Burton's works, and, it's hoped for, a never-published journal about his travels in America with the relative of the woman who claims the books were stolen from her family. Dunning weaves slices of today's quest with exerpts from the old journal, as the men, separated by time and reason, travel the same paths in the American southeast.

Along the way, Janeway gets involved in the struggle between powerful families, suffers the death of a friend, and begins a love affair. With the exception of traveling companions Erin, and Koko - both of whom are somewhat mediocre characters, Dunning populates Janeway's quest not only with fascinating places and glimpses into the past, but with well-drawn supporting characters.

The Bookman's Promise educates as well as entertains, and was well worth the wait!

It's been almost a decade since the last "Cliff Janeway" novel by John Dunning, but the wait was well worth it. Mr. Dunning's newest book, THE BOOKMAN'S PROMISE, brings back our ex-Denver homicide detective/book dealer in rare form as he seeks to find the murderer of a new friend and information concerning Sir Richard Burton's (legendary Nineteenth Century explorer and author) trip to the United States just before the start of the Civil War. It all begins when Janeway purchases a rare book by Richard Burton in pristine condition and inscribed by Burton to someone named Charlie Warren at an auction. Within weeks, an elderly woman appears at Janeway's bookstore, claiming to be the granddaughter of Charlie Warren and asking Janeway to help her find the missing library of Burton books that were stolen from her family after her grandfather died. As proof of her claim, she presents Janeway with another book by Burton, also in pristine condition and inscribed to her grandfather. This leads Janeway to a book dealer in Baltimore and a dangerous thug who's more than willing to kill in order to stop Janeway in his search. Janeway then heads to Charleston, South Carolina where Richard Burton and Charlie Warren spent several days, supposedly causing the start of the War Between the States. What will Janeway discover and how many people will have to die because of something that happened over 150 years ago? As in the previous two "Janeway" novels (BOOKED TO DIE and THE BOOKMAN'S WAKE), Mr. Dunning creates a marvelous mystery filled with strong character development, suspense, and bare-knuckles action, while at the same time delving into the intriguing world of rare books and what makes one book more valuable than another. Any "Janeway" novel is certainly a special treat for lovers of well-written mysteries and the world of antique books. John Dunning definitely knows his subject matter and manages to make it quite vivid and entertaining. I can't highly recommend this novel enough, or the two previous ones in the series. I sincerely hope Mr. Dunning won't wait as long before presenting his growing legion of fans with his next "Janeway" novel.

It took 12 years, but the bookman we came to know and love in "Booked to Die" (1992) is finally back. After a less-enjoyable-than-hoped for encore in 1995, this time Dunning's plot works much more effectively and he's got tough-guy bookman Cliff Janeway on track again. For the most part, the pace is fast and furious, and just as in the original novel filled with fascinating minutia about the business - or should I say passion - of collecting rare books. For some, these side trips into the world of rare books might be offputting, but to me they are the frosting on the cake and I don't mind them at all. That said, there are a few false steps here; a hoodlum whose connection to and interest in a down-at-the-heels bookseller is hard to swallow, and an extended flashback to the days leading up to the beginning of the Civil War that puts the central plot on hold for several chapters. Yet even this is enjoyable as Dunning introduces us to the long dead subject of Janeway's search, author and historian Richard Burton. I can see the dilemma facing an author setting out to write this novel. How many different ways can you evolve a plot from the search for a book, the disappearance of a book? Not all that many, I think, and thanks to that, Dunning has thrown everything into this one, including a piece of advice that might actually have been responsible for starting the Civil War.

Art Tirrell is the author of 2007's surprise hit, "The Secret Ever Keeps"

"Simply put...the best underwater scenes I've ever read."

This third book of the Cliff Janeway series is a real disappointment. I still look forward to the fourth in the series, but with diminished hopes.

Somewhere hidden amid the flab of "The Bookman's Promise" are the bones of a better book. Whatever its actual course of development, the book gives the impression of a manuscript written long, then given to the printer without tweaking, tightening or any other discernable form of editing.

There are simply too many undigested lumps and whiskery cliches. Consider these few examples:

* The biggest lump, of course, is the long narrative of the antebellum South, Dick and Charlie's Excellent Adventure. This narrative was pretty clearly conceived as Charlie's first-person memoir. But there is still another memoir, Dick's, which takes the form of a handwritten journal, so the Excellent Adventure has been clumsily cast as Charlie's narrative . . . as IMAGINED by his granddaughter . . . then forgotten by her . . . then reconstructed by application of memory recovery voodoo. . . then tape recorded . . . then pulled out of thin air by a character introduced for no other reason. Sheesh!

* Charlie, himself, while clearly prime fodder for an interview with Dr. Phil, or even Oprah, is singularly unconvincing as a member of the Civil War generation. He is terrified by possibilities that his contemporaries simply faced with grim determination. On the other hand, he is indifferent to or (more likely) unaware of matters of great pith and moment to his contemporaries. He is cast purely as an observer of the great crisis in American history, but his age, his profession, his financial status and his politics would almost certainly have made him an active participant--as a cartographic officer on McClellan's staff, say, just the man to march up and down the Peninsula, to be steam-rollered at Antietam and Chancellorsville, and then maybe, just maybe to plot out the march of a corps in the race to Appomattox.

* Dunning holds on dearly to the cliche of the childhood buddy, now a Mafia don, who seems to be modeled more on the Phantom of the Opera than on Joey Gallo or John Gotti. Ditch the Don, Dunning, or do something clever with him--soon.

* The relationship between Janeway and his new lady-love is seriously short of zing. What does she see in him, anyway? And why does this attorney take the very real possibility of an accessory rap on a murder charge with such equanimity?

* Then there is with Dante, a hood apparently descended from both Moose Malloy and Jason. Janeway incurs his undying wrath by causing him humiliation. Dunning builds up expectations for an inevitable second confrontation as something to rank between the gunfight at the OK Corral and the sack of Troy. When that second meeting occurs, it is, to say the very least, less than we might reasonably have expected.

This is just an ordinary book from an author who has done extraordinary things. All I want from Dunning and Janeway is a books and bookmen yarn, but this book has descended into the order of the heroic quest novel--down into (ugh) Dan Brown territory. Let us fervently hope that Janeway IV will be subjected to a discerning editor's blue pencil.

This long-awaited third entry in Dunning's Cliff Janeway series picks up several months after the events of "the Grayson affair" (detailed in The Bookman's Wake). It starts with ex-cop turned bookdealer Janeway having taken the plunge into serious collecting, by paying a cool $27,000 for a rare volume by that superstar explorer and chronicler of the Victorian era, Richard Burton. This bold move, coupled with a subsequent interview on national radio brings him to the attention of all kinds of crackpots. One of these is a creaky old lady who swears that the book he bought belonged to her grandfather, who befriended Burton during his 1860 trip to the U.S. Janeway promises to look into the matter and is soon entangled in a highly convoluted story involving lost journals, unscrupulous book dealers and collectors, a nasty Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a sexy lawyer, and an investigation that will take him from Denver to Baltimore and Charleston.

The real mystery at the heart of the story is the old woman's claim that her grandfather and Burton traveled through the Southern United States together about a year before the outbreak of the Civil War. This is all recounted via the wildly silly device of audio tapes made of the woman while under hypnosis. The middle part of the book is told in the woman's grandfather's voice, who details this trip, alleging, among other things that it was Burton who had the original idea for moving the Union troops to Ft. Sumter (and thus was the Princip of the time), and that he fathered a child with a innkeeper's daughter! Oh yes, and they meet baseball's "inventor", Abner Doubleday. All of this is kind of cute and clever, and ably written, but somewhat superfluous to the story. There's no real reason to include this section other than to try and get the reader invested in the literary drama of the idea.

I quite liked the first Janeway book, found the second to be only so-so, and find this one is equally average. Part of the problem stems from Dunning falling into somewhat of a rut: in each book Janeway befriends various clever females who function as his sidekicks; in each book a very likeable character is killed, providing Janeway with ample motive to carry on and mete out justice; in each book there is at least one thuggish goon for Janeway to go mano-a-mano with; and in each book Janeway finds himself romantically entangled with a smart, gorgeous woman. In this case, it's not really apparent why the woman falls for Janeway, and so their charged banter never really makes a lot of sense. The goon who provides the frisson of tangible danger to the story is an utter cardboard psycho, and thus of very little interest. More problematically, when the murderer of the story is revealed at the end, it's ridiculously implausible and very unsatisfying. This book also has the classic "well, why don't they just go to the cops problem". At one point, the bad guys hold something over Janeway and use that as leverage to not go to the cops. But once Janeway and crew remove that particular lever, they never revisit the notion of going to the cops -- which might have saved some trouble in the end.

Ultimately, while I'm a fan of Burton, and enjoyed the idea of Dunning filling in this missing period of his life, the surrounding story never really captured me. In addition to the flaws outlined above, Janeway himself is getting a bit tired as a character. His wisecracking tough-guy schick wears thin pretty quickly, and his whole go-it-alone attitude becomes just as tiresome to the reader as it does to the various women who seem to find him so fascinating. I suppose I'll keep reading the series, but it appears that Dunning is forced to assemble ever more convoluted and preposterous plots to cast his book-loving hero upon.

On p. 11 of "The Bookman's Promise" John Dunning describes an author as"... a major talent... a writer who would never waste my time." Putting aside the character of the author Dunning describes, you have a very apt description of the man himself. It seems as if Dunning is incapable of writing anything less than fascinating. His "Cliff Janeway" novels, of which this is the latest, have only one flaw; they are too few and far between. His "Two O'clock Eastern Wartime" is an overlooked treasure that should be read by anyone who appreciates fine mystery/history writing. And his "Tune in Yesterday" is probably the definitive work on early radio (you know, the years when radio MEANT something!) But I digress. "Bookman's Promise", in and of itself, is a thrilling speculation on, among other things, rare bookdealers, literary chicanery, honor, decency, and (just for kicks) the life and work of Sir Richard Burton. Oh, did I mention it's a helluva good mystery?

Buy this book now. Who knows, in a few years it may be out of your price range.

I love this series. Cliff Janeway is one of the most complete characters in the mystery genre. The books are tight and the plots twist and turn ending up with unexpected resolutions. However, the Bookman's Promise does leave a lot of frayed and farfetched threads hanging by the end. You could easily over look this and still be bowled over by Dunning's impeccable writing. But... for a true mystery aficionado like myself, you will have to admit when you look back over the story that a lot of what occurs here does not make total sense.

First of all, when considering the resolution of the murder, you will have to admit that this is kind of hokey. I just did not understand why the murderer felt like he/she needed to do what he/she did. With the amount of time that elapsed (this will make sense if you have read the book) the object of desire were in all rights irrefutably the murderers in the first place. Secondly, the plot surrounding the blind old lady was very far fetched. It's hard to buy, and her giving that valuable book to a few strangers is odd to say the least. And lastly, another reviewer wondered why Dante was even in the book. When I thought about that, I sat and could not really answer the question. Dunning pulls in a peripheral bad guy to spice things up and in the end Dante has no real connection to the story. One last complaint that I have is that there is a huge flash back-story here talking about Richard Burton's trip to the South. I think that this story was kind of forced. If you read Murakami's `Wind Up Bird Chronicle' you could see just how seamlessly an adjunct third party story can fit into a larger tale. Holding them side-by-side, Murakami puts Dunning to shame.

All of my ranting aside, I really did enjoy this book. There are a lot of faults here, but it was fun and informative regarding history and books at the same time. This is the third in a series and it only drops off a very little from the first two's intensity. Dunning is starting to remind me a little of Harlan Coben's stand alone books (by this I mean all of Coben's books without the character Myron Bolitar). Coben's recent books are a lot of fun like Dunning's. Coben is way too cheerful and optimistic, but if you like Dunning's work, I think you would also enjoy Coben.

Some years ago, a bookseller told me that John Dunning had decided not to continue the Cliff Janeway series. I was really sorry, because I had so enjoyed the two Janeway novels. Thus when I saw the announcement of "Bookman's Promise," I was thrilled. I ordered the book and read it at once.

What a disappointment. Gone are the details of the rare book world that made "Booked to Die" so fascinating; gone is the careful delineation of Janeway's initially-complex character.

In their place is a superficial tough-guy private eye caper, complete with scumbag gangsters (in the rare book world, mind you), macho posturing, and that annoying rapid-fire repartee without which private dicks are apparently not allowed to beat up crooks.

According to the bookjacket, Dunning is working on Cliff Janeway #4. But I doubt I'll be reading it, now that Cliff has become just another Spenser clone. I'd suggest that Dunning and Parker collaborate on a cross-over, except that the characters would probably do nothing but trade smart remarks while they punch the crap out of each other.

I discovered Dunning and immediately read the first two mysteries. They were wonderful as my reviews indicate. I was anxious to start The Bookman's Promise. I tried but it just never got going. Other reviewers have described the book so I will not repeat the story. I can not figure out why there really is any interest in the story. The book lags and the long historical section does not move the story forward.

One part of the series that is getting tiresome is that everyone who is favorable is a book lover.

I will take a break now from Dunning before I continue with the series.

John Dunning's Cliff Janeway series is a reliable fare of mysteries set in the world of book-selling and collecting. This one is middle of the road for the series or mysteries in general.

Janeway buys a Richard Burton (19th century explorer, not the actor) book at auction, is interviewed on NPR and then is confronted by an elderly lady who tips him off to a valuable Burton collection "stolen" from her family. He promises to recoup it and the chase is on leading him from Denver to Baltimore to Charleston. Along the way he crosses paths with a psychotic henchman who follows him and his allies.

The mystery is not a terrific one. The solution, sadly, is packed in the end with superpowers of deduction that the reader is not able to share. The muscleman who chases him adds needed tension to the plot, but when all is said and done, he really was not part of the plot in chief - only there to add the tension and some violence.

What improves the book is the historical context of Richard Burton and a diary account of his trip south right before the Civil War. Evidently there were some months missing in biographies of his life when he was in the United States. Dunning has put him in the south with a suspicion that he was spying for England. I wish Mr. Dunning would have given us more on what was historically accurate, theorized and full fiction in his historical note at the end of the book.

All in all this was a pretty good book. As always, the tidbits on book collecting were interesting. Most of the supporting characters to Janeway were good, although the mobster type was a cardboard cutout. An enjoyable read, although not one of Dunning's better efforts.