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After an eight-year hiatus, author and antiques book collector John Dunning has returned Cliff Janeway --- the tough guy, Denver ex-cop turned bookstore owner and hero of two prior novels, BOOKED TO DIE and THE BOOKMAN'S WAKE --- to his fans.
Janeway is plunged into a new mystery when Josephine Gallant, a frail and dying old woman, is brought to his shop. She had heard Janeway on a radio interview about a rare first edition he had acquired by 19th century explorer Richard Francis Burton. She contends that the book is rightfully hers and was part of a vast collection of her grandfather's. The collection mysteriously disappeared shortly after her grandfather's death, and she has always suspected that a crooked Baltimore bookstore dealer was responsible. None of the books had surfaced in almost 80 years, but she is certain Janeway's new acquisition was part of that collection.
She tells Janeway and the people with whom she is staying that her grandfather traveled the American South with Burton for three months just before the outbreak of the Civil War and that Burton kept a journal of that expedition, which he left with her grandfather. She owns only one pristine book from the entire collection, for which Janeway offers her $25,000. On her deathbed she gives it to Janeway with two stipulations: that he split the value with her hosts and that he will promise to track down the journal and the rest of Burton's writings, which she claims were her birthright.
After a friend is murdered and another's life is threatened over the possible existence of this collection, Janeway's promise leads him to Baltimore and South Carolina in search of the missing journal. Janeway collects two women and encounters a large cast of colorful characters in the search. Was Burton a British spy or did he play some role in the early part of the American Civil War? What was the connection between the unscrupulous Baltimore bookstore owners and their current owners? Is one of his female companions somehow involved with the murder?
Janeway combines his antiques collector knowledge with his muscular tough guy cop persona in hot pursuit of the ultimate dream of every book collector: the undiscovered handwritten copy of a prolific and famous author.
THE BOOKMAN'S PROMISE is part book collector's paradise, filled with Dunning's unquestioned knowledge of musty book dens and collector's facts, and part mystery buff's delight as his sleuthing skills go on the hunt for clues that span a century. He reveals Burton's mysterious journey through a flashback to Gallant's grandfather's narrative of the trip. The narrative method used is a little tricky, but it manages to overcome incredulity with a fascinating exploration of a time and place long lost.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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