Bookman's promise

The Bookman's Promise

A CLIFF JANEWAY NOVEL

John Dunning

Also by John Dunning fiction

Two O’Clock, Eastern Wartime

The Bookman’s Wake

Booked to Die

Deadline

Denver

Looking for Ginger North The Holland Suggestions

NONFICTION

On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio Tune in Yesterday

SCRIBNER

New York London Toronto Sydney

SCRIBNER

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

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

Copyright © 2004 by John Dunning

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Scribner and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.

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

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Text set in Sabon Manufactured in the United States of America

13579 10 8642

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dunning, John, 1942-The bookman’s promise: a Cliff Janeway novel/John Dunning.

p. cm.

1. Janeway, Cliff (Fictitious character)—Fiction.

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

3. Booksellers and bookselling—Fiction. 4. Antiquarian booksellers—Fiction.

5. Ex-police officers—Fiction. 6. Denver (Colo.)—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3554.U494B655 2004

813‘.54—dc21

2003054273

ISBN 0-7432-4992-5

To Pat McGuire,

for long friendship, timely brainstorming, and other mysterious reasons

The man said, “Welcome to Book Beat, Mr. Janeway” and this was how it began.

We were sitting in a Boston studio before the entire invisible listening audience of National Public Radio. I was here against my better judgment, and my first words into the microphone, “Just don’t call me an expert on anything,” staked out the conditions under which I had become such an unlikely guest. Saying it now into the microphone had a calming effect, but the man’s polite laugh again left me exposed on both flanks. Not only was