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| Kind of slow at first, but then . . . |
Occasionally, Denver bookman Cliff Janeway has one of those perfect days - he sells a couple of good books and he buys something even better - perhaps a tough-to-find Steinbeck in mint condition. Even the jacket is fine.
Working from his store on seedy Colfax Avenue, Janeway doesn't have enough of those days, but he's not complaining. Things are looking up because of his new partner and friend, lawyer Erin d'Angelo. So when Erin asks Janeway for a favor, it's hard to say no. She wants him to go over the mountain to the small town of Paradise where a former good friend, Laura Marshall, is in jail, accused of killing her husband.
What happened at the Marshalls' remote mountain home? Did Laura kill Bobby, or is she trying to protect her oldest son? And where were the three children when the shooting occurred? What did they see?
Rich with fascinating book lore and a tension-filled plot that's full of surprises, The Sign of the Book is the best yet from an acclaimed author who is himself first and always a "bookman."
"The Bookwoman's Last Fling"
In another enthralling bestseller by "master yarn spinner" John Dunning, rare book dealer and relentless private eye Cliff Janeway unravels a deadly plot marked by stolen classics and stable secrets.
When wealthy horse trainer H. R. Geiger dies, Denver bookman Cliff Janeway encounters the legacy of the man's wife, Candice, a true bookwoman who left behind an assortment of rare first-edition children's books.
Sent to assess the collection, Janeway soon finds that several titles are missing, replaced by cheap reprints -- while other hugely expensive pieces remain. Why would a thief take one priceless book and leave an equally valuable volume on the shelf? Suspecting foul play, Janeway follows the trail of Candice's shadowy past to California's Golden Gate and Santa Anita racetracks, where he signs on as a racehorse hot walker.
Eavesdropping on the chatter among the hands, he doesn't like what he hears. And when he goes to the house where Candice died to look for answers, Janeway finds much more than he bargained for.
John Dunning was born in 1942 in Brooklyn, NY. He was raised in Charleston, SC, is married, and has two adult children.
Dunning always wanted to write, but he was a poor student. He left high school in the tenth grade, partly because of an inability to concentrate and absorb lectures. Several years ago he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD), a malady that could not have been imagined in the glorious 1950s.
Dunning has revealed some of book collecting's most shocking secrets in his bestselling series of crime novels featuring Cliff Janeway, which won the prestigious Nero Wolfe award.
He is also an expert on rare and collectible books, he owned the Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver for many years. He is also an expert on American radio history. He lives in Denver, Colorado.
Visit his website at www.oldalgonquin.com.John Dunning
"The Bookman's Promise" is 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 80 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.
