Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

Item Information


		Booklist Review
		Library Journal Review
		Publisher Weekly Review
		More Content

	More by this author
		Dunning, John, 1942-

	Subjects
		Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 -- First editions -- Fiction.
		Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction.
		Antiquarian booksellers -- Fiction.
		Book collectors -- Fiction.
		Ex-police officers -- Fiction.
		Denver (Colo.) -- Fiction.

	Browse Catalog
		by author:
		Dunning, John, 1942-

		by title:
		The bookman's promis...

		by call number:
		FICTION DUN

	Search the Web
		Dunning, John, 1942-
		Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 -- First editions -- Fiction.
		Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction.
		Antiquarian booksellers -- Fiction.
		Book collectors -- Fiction.
		Ex-police officers -- Fiction.
		Denver (Colo.) -- Fiction.


	MARC Display

The bookman's promise : a Cliff Janeway novel / John Dunning.

by Dunning, John, 1942-

View full image

Scribner, c2004.

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 -- First editions -- Fiction.

Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction.

Antiquarian booksellers -- Fiction.

Book collectors -- Fiction.

Ex-police officers -- Fiction.

Denver (Colo.) -- Fiction.

Dunning, John, 1942- Cliff Janeway mysteries ; 3.

369 p. ; 25 cm.

"First, it was Booked to Die, then The Bookman's Wake. Now John Dunning fans, old and new, will rejoice in The Bookman's Promise, a richly nuanced new Janeway novel that juxtaposes past and present as Denver ex-cop and bookman Cliff Janeway searches for a book and a killer. The quest begins when an old woman, Josephine Gallant, learns that Janeway has recently bought at auction a signed first edition by the legendary nineteenth-century explorer Richard Francis Burton. The book is a true classic, telling of Burton's journey (disguised as a Muslim) to the forbidden holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Boston auction house was a distinguished and trustworthy firm, but provenance is sometimes murky and Josephine says the book is rightfully hers. She believes that her grandfather, who was living in Baltimore more than eighty years ago, had a fabulous collection of Burton material, including a handwritten journal allegedly detailing Burton's undercover trip deep into the troubled American South in 1860. Josephine remembers the books from her childhood, but everything mysteriously disappeared shortly after her grandfather's death. With little time left in her own life, Josephine begs for Janeway's promise: he must find her grandfather's collection. It's a virtually impossible task, Janeway suspects, as the books will no doubt have been sold and separated over the years, but how can he say no to a dying woman? It seems that her grandfather, Charlie Warren, traveled south with Burton in the spring of 1860, just before the Civil War began. Was Burton a spy for Britain? What happened during the three months in Burton's travels for which there are no records? How did Charlie acquire his unique collection of Burton books? What will the journal, if it exists, reveal? When a friend is murdered, possibly because of a Burton book, Janeway knows he must find the answers. Someone today is willing to kill to keep the secrets of the past, and Janeway's search will lead him east: To Baltimore, to a Pulitzer Prize-winning author with a very stuffed shirt, and to a pair of unorthodox booksellers. It reaches a fiery conclusion at Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. What's more, a young lawyer, Erin d'Angelo, and ex-librarian Koko Bujak, have their own reasons for wanting to find the journal. But can Janeway trust them? Rich with the insider's information on rare and collectible books that has made John Dunning famous, and with meticulously researched detail about a mesmerizing figure who may have played an unrecognized role in our Civil War, The Bookman's Promise is riveting entertainment from an extraordinarily gifted author who is as unique and special as the books he so clearly loves."--Inside jacket.

Mystery fiction.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal