THE BOOKMAN’S PROMISE

That eminent Victorian scholar-adventurer, Sir Richard Burton, is both subject and role model for antiquarian bookseller Cliff Janeway’s long-awaited third case.

Flush with reward money from his Seattle caper (The Bookman’s Wake, 1995), ex–Denver homicide cop Janeway splurges on an inscribed copy of Burton’s Pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca. Soon thereafter he gets an unannounced visit from Josephine Gallant, ancient granddaughter of Charles Warren—the American companion to Burton’s storied but mysteriously unwritten 1860 tour of South Carolina—who tells Janeway she once owned the book he’s purchased and begs him to recover the rest of her library of Burtoniana, lost decades ago to a swindling family of Baltimore booksellers. Learning that nefarious Dean and Carl Treadwell are still carrying on the family business under the same roof, Janeway takes off for the East Coast, but not before his quest, in the first of many well-planned surprises, claims the life of an innocent friend. The ensuing blend of historical pastiche and violence is so satisfying that most readers will overlook or forgive the scant connection between the breathless present-day search for Burton’s lost memoir of his southern journey and the revelation of what’s between that book’s covers: news that Burton may have played a part in igniting the war.

Though not as tightly wound as Janeway’s first two adventures, this one is still endlessly inventive, exhilarating, and literate. Quite a knockout punch for a used bookseller.