John Dunning

The Bookman's Promise (Cliff Janeway Novels )

Sarah Sammis

The Bookman's Promise is the third in the Cliff Janeway series but the only one I've read. I picked it up at the start of the year at our local BookCrossing meeting because the premise sounded interesting.

Cliff Janeway, a retired cop turned book collector / book detective is put on the trail of a hidden journal by Francis Burton. In the process of hunting down the book and verifying the story behind it, a person is murdered and Cliff can't help but try to solve the mystery too.

The book didn't grab my attention. The characters seemed wooden and there was too much emphasis put on the minutiae of Cliff's day to day life. Reading through him describing the ins and outs of his days made me feel like the bored child at the back of the car: "Are we there yet?" and never getting a "yes!" from the front. When the mystery was finally solved it was an anticlimactic ending that was obvious from the earliest chapters.

Peggy Walker

This was evidently the third in a series of books about the character "Cliff Janeway". He is a retired policeman who now runs a rare bookshop, and tracks down and purchases books for discriminating buyers. I found the historical part very interesting, and the "diary" part was well written and held my interest. However, this rather academic writing was interrupted with murder, mayhem, mobsters, maiming, etc., which...to me...just didn't fit with the rest of the story. The ending was completely unsatisfying. I won't be looking for any more from this series.

The Bookman's Promise (Cliff Janeway Novels )

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