The Bookman's Promise: A Cliff Janeway Novel (Hardcover)

by John Dunning (Author) "If I wanted to be arbitrary, I could say it began anywhere..." (more)
Key Phrases: Richard Burton, Fort Sumter, Dean Treadwell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In Nero Wolfe Award winner Dunning's third literate entry in his Cliff Janeway series (after Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake), 90-ish Josephine Gallant persuades the former Denver cop turned antiquarian bookseller to try to recover a rare collection of the works of Richard Burton, "the explorer, not the actor," that once belonged to her grandfather, a faithful traveling companion of Burton. Eager to fulfill his pledge to Ms. Gallant, who expires soon after their meeting, Janeway begins an investigation that takes him to a seedy used bookshop and other strange haunts in Baltimore, where he runs into a shady writer and a gang of thugs who are obviously looking for the same literary treasures. Midway through the often rambling narrative, a flashback to 1860 steps up the pace when Burton undertakes a possible espionage mission to the South for the British prime minister and encounters Captain Abner Doubleday, who solicits his advice on the defense of Fort Sumter. Two well-intentioned women join Janeway for the final search through historic Charleston, with the inevitable romantic interludes. Too many extraneous characters and some tedious dialogue slow the action, but the book-collecting background is sure to appeal to a wide range of mystery readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
It's been eight long years since the last Cliff Janeway mystery, starring Denver's only tough-guy antiquarian bookseller. The former homicide cop is thrilled with his purchase of a first edition by nineteenth-century explorer Richard Burton, but the book brings more grief than it does pleasure. After an elderly woman arrives in Janeway's store claiming that the Burton belongs to her, our bibliophile-sleuth finds himself in the middle of a nasty feud between book collectors that stretches back generations and culminates with an all-stops-out climax at Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston. The text jumps between Janeway's search for answers and the story of Burton's undocumented trip to America just before the Civil War. Is there, Janeway is determined to discover, an unpublished journal that documents the explorer's whereabouts during his so-called lost years? Devoted fans of this series have been craving a new installment, and they won't be a bit disappointed by this compelling mix of hard-boiled action and exquisitely musty book lore. Like Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy series starring the rough-hewn Cockney antiques dealer, the Janeway novels avoid the wussy, Masterpiece Theatre-like decorum that too often sinks bibliophile crime stories. Along with plenty of muscle-flexing, there's also enough sex here to remind us that the antiquarian's life can still be robust. The combination of Burton the adventurer-author and Janeway the cop-bookseller is a match made in crime-fiction heaven. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (February 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743249925
• ISBN-13: 978-0743249928
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #409,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #14 in	Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dunning, John
  #63 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Books & Reading > Booksellers & Bookselling
  #67 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Books & Reading > Antiquarian & Rare Books

• This is item 3 in The Cliff Janeway Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINNALLY, ANOTHER "CLIFF JANEWAY" NOVEL!!!, March 27, 2004

By	Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cliff Janeway returns!, September 19, 2004

By	L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Great, Not Bad, Just Full of Flaws, March 27, 2006

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bookman's Promise (Cliff Janeway Novels ) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.