The Bookman's Promise, by John Dunning

(0743249925)

I think Dunning only writes when he runs out of money. Which is sort of cool. Anyway, this is his first Janeway story in over a decade.

The main reason I've read his stuff before is that it takes place in Denver, the Denver I grew up knowing. And this is set in 1987, so I should know my way around a bit. Unfortunately, most of the action in this book takes place in South Carolina and Baltimore. Oh, well...

The story follows Richard Burton, the explorer, and tries to explain what he was doing for part of the three months he was in the U.S. just before the Civil War. So I got history and mystery in the same book, always good.

The story was interesting, and most of the way through I wasn't really focussed on who the bad guy might be. When I did start paying attention to that part of the plot, I 'got it' right away.

Pretty realistic characters, lots of factoids about the Civil War, Burton's life, and book collecting. Theoretically, at least, a subject close to the heart of a librarian. Which reminds me, there is a librarian as part of the investigative team here. She's close enough to the middle of things that her house gets torched.

I'll continue to hold out hope that more Janeway books will appear.