Bookman's wake

Also by John Dunning

FICTION

The Holland Suggestions

Looking for Ginger North

Denver

Deadline

Booked to Die

The Bookman’s Wake

Two O’Clock, Eastern Wartime

NONFICTION

Tune in Yesterday

On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio

THE

BOOKMAN’S WAKE

JOHN DUNNING

POCKET STAR BOOKS

New York London Toronto Sydney

The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

PA Pocket Star Book, published by POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Copyright © 1995 by John Dunning

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-671-56782-9

First Pocket Books printing March 1996

10 9 8

POCKET STAR BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Cover design by Jae Song

Manufactured in the United States of America

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected]

To Jack Kisling of Hairline Press, who navigates

with a steady hand the eddies and shoals

of the printshop.

Again, prices on actual books discussed by characters in the story may be a year or two out-of-date. In a time of madness, when a new novel can bring ten times its cover price a year after publication, prices become obsolete almost as they’re published. Janeway remains a cynic when people pay too much too soon and glorify the