Rating: 
Summary: Our hardboiled book dealer strikes again ...
Review: The third "bookman's" novel finds Cliff Janeway chasing high-end collectibles by the explorer Richard Burton. But this novel is sadder than the others, with too many losses to feel completely satisfied at the resolution of the various mysteries. However, Dunning's imaginative telling of Burton's missing months in the American South brings the history to life and conveys his own passion for this particular author and adventurer. I also enjoyed the witty (albeit unrealistic) repartee between the characters. I liked "Booked to Die" the most, and this one is my second choice. This book also exposes and rails against the unethical bookman and collector. As in the previous two in the series, accurate book lore is sprinkled throughout, giving a taste of the addictive potential of book collecting. You don't need to spend into 5 figures to enjoy the book collecting fever! Like Cliff, educate yourself and then collect what you love (and can afford).
Rating:
Summary: Our hardboiled book dealer strikes again ...
Review: The third "bookman's" novel finds Cliff Janeway chasing high-end collectibles by the explorer Richard Burton. But this novel is sadder than the others, with too many losses to feel completely satisfied at the resolution of the various mysteries. However, Dunning's imaginative telling of Burton's missing months in the American South brings the history to life and conveys his own passion for this particular author and adventurer. I also enjoyed the witty (albeit unrealistic) repartee between the characters. I liked "Booked to Die" the most, and this one is my second choice. This book also exposes and rails against the unethical bookman and collector. As in the previous two in the series, accurate book lore is sprinkled throughout, giving a taste of the addictive potential of book collecting. You don't need to spend into 5 figures to enjoy the book collecting fever! Like Cliff, educate yourself and then collect what you love (and can afford).
Rating: 
Summary: Lame. Dunning needs a new editor
Review: This book was too long, had too many extraneous details that went nowhere, and had a totally unsatisfactory ending. Dunning's first two Janeway books were great, though. If you haven't read them yet, don't waste time here. If you have, you'll be disappointed with this.
Rating: 
Summary: I hope the next installment comes much quicker this time...
Review: This is a book I've looked forward to for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed. The Bookman's Promise by John Dunning is a continuation of the Cliff Janeway series, and I really wish this guy would write more. Very good stories... Cliff Janeway is an ex-cop who left the force after an excessive force incident, and he decided to open a book store specializing in rare and collectible books. Dunning is an actual bookseller, and you can tell he knows the field well. Janeway decides to buy a $30K volume by Richard Burton (the explorer) and is contacted by an elderly lady who claims to be related to someone who knew Burton well. There is also rumor of a journal that Burton kept during a time period before the Civil War, and it could shed light on how the war actually started. She claims that a large collection of the Burton works were stolen from her when her uncle died, and Janeway promises to try and uncover what may have happened to them. She dies shortly after he makes the promise, and he can't let it go. The search leads to the seedy side of the book-selling world, and soon Janeway has made a few enemies who want him dead. He has to balance his promise against trying to stay alive and not cause any injury to the people surrounding him. As a crime/mystery novel, the story is good. Janeway is an interesting character, and you quickly become wrapped up in his quest. For me, the element that makes it a special read is the backdrop of book selling. I love books, and I love reading. I can identify with the search for that hidden treasure and how it feels to hold a unique volume in your hands. If you love books, Dunning will quickly become a favorite author.
Rating: 
Summary: Dunning stumbles with Janeway III
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Dunning's a new favorite
Review: This was my first Cliff Janeway novel and I'm very satisfied with this book. I'm recommending this one to all my friends who like me enjoy a good mystery with a bit of romance and some historical details thrown in. At first I was skeptical of the whole rare book dealer idea, but Janeway is so much more as an ex-cop with connections to the police department. Cliff's the guy you hope is in your corner when trouble starts brewing. When a friend gets blamed for a crime that he couldn't have committed, Janeway intercedes on his behalf in such an entertaining way. He's a man of honor too, when an elderly lady provides proof that the rare edition he's recently purchased by Sir Richard Burton may have belonged to her grandfather and presents Janeway with another book with a similar inscription inside to his, he makes her a promise. Hence the bookman's promise. A promise made to a dying lady to investigate the disappearance of her grandfather's collection. Charlie Warren, the lady's grandfather, apparently befriended Sir Richard Burton here in America and became his traveling companion for a time. Upon his death a large book house from Baltimore owned by shady dealers supposedly purchased the entire collection at an unheard of price. Now years later the book house is still owned by the decendants of these characters and seem to be carrying on the family tradition of underhanded deals. Also in Baltimore another person, Koko, who befriended the dying lady while a resident in a local nursing home, has information critical to Cliff's search for the truth. After encountering ruffians of the book dealers, Cliff and Koko travel to Charleston, SC where it's believed that Sir Richard Burton and Charlie Warren stayed for awhile. Of course they're followed, and of course they discover more clues, and of course Cliff is looking for more than information about the books, he's also looking for the killer of a friend tied to the books who was helping the older lady, Ms. Gallant, find him to begin with. Of course there's a love interest involved and no it's not Koko, although she seems really nice. And too there's a surprise or two which makes for a good mystery. A previous reviewer stated the narration switches in the middle and found this to be confusing, however I found it intriguing. This section of the book, which does take a turn in the narration is so valuable to the plot, it would have been confusing without it. John Dunning spins a very intriguing, entertaining tale. Don't miss it. It's time well spent and worth the sleepless nights.
Rating:
Summary: Interminable
Review: Unlike the previous books in this serious, the business of books is put aside relatively early in favor of the study of one man, the explorer Sir Richard Burton. Bookman CLiff Janeway is visited in his Denver store by a very old lady with an inprobable story: her grandfather was a confidant of the great British explorer and writer. As Janeway looks into the matter to find some lost journals more death and mayhem ocurrs, he acquires two females assistants and you will learn more about Burton than you ever hoped to. I happen to know of Burton and think him a genius but even this was this too much; the plot is hopelessly convoluted and boring and the ending quite confusing and unsatisfying. Perhaps three stars was generous.
Rating:
Summary: The perilous world of old books
Review: When ex-cop turned bookman Cliff Janeway takes a giant step into serious collecting, his $30,000 purchase of a volume by British explorer Richard Burton lands him in a quagmire of fraud, theft and, ultimately, murder. This third in the series (years after "Booked to Die," and "The Bookman's Wake") is set in 1987, before the Internet made book searching easier, if not cleaner. The background booklore should fascinate anyone who likes books - from the searching of bibliographies and dusty shelves to the small world of serious collectors and occasional shady operators. Janeway's acquisition puts him in an awkward position between the two when a frail old lady shows up claiming that his inscribed Burton book is part of her grandfather Warren's collection, stolen, or at least fraudulently sold, after his death. Further, Mrs. Gallant claims that Burton and Charlie Warren became friends and toured the south before the Civil War. Her proof - an equally pristine Burton volume with a similar inscription - is hardly conclusive, but Janeway promises to pursue the matter. A brutal murder follows on the heels of the old lady's death and sends Janeway to Gallant's hometown of Baltimore, to an old bookstore with a sleazy reputation and to a woman who uses hypnotism to take oral histories from people like Mrs. Gallant. Which leads to a somewhat awkward flashback-like section in which Charlie Warren (through the taped medium of Mrs. Gallant) tells the story of his trip with Richard Burton and how Burton helped start the war. Armed with this knowledge, Janeway speeds things along and is soon mixing it up with arrogant academics, thugs, arsonists and murderers. And exchanging wisecracks and romantic sparks with a possibly untrustworthy lawyer. Although there's not a lot of depth to the other characters, Janeway is likable and sharp, as well as ruthless when he needs to be. The Burton back story (even the flashback) will make you want to rush out and get all the explorer's books (in ordinary readers' editions) and Dunning makes the antiquarian book world a fascinating and suspenseful place.
|
