"Retired ex-cop Cliff Janeway is residing in Denver and contentedly living his dream as a rare and used bookseller when a former colleague turned PI offers him an easy $5000 to bring back a young female fugitive and deliver her to a bondsman in Taos.
The girl is wanted for assault and burglary, including the possible theft of a rare and precious copy of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven", crafted by the mysterious genius behind the Grayson Press. Irresistibly drawn, Janeway locates his target, the improbably named Eleanor Rigby in Seattle, only to find himself siding with the lonely bibliophile, and together they hunt for the man who is systematically killing rare book collectors, all the while eluding a particularly nasty hired thug. When Eleanor disappears, Janeway must find her before the killer does, an endeavor which takes him into the sometimes dark and dusty corners of fraud and violence that can fill the world of wealthy collectors and rare book dealers.
"
Gerrian Walsh, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of The Bookman's Wake
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases - 20% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30% How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
Time/era of story:
- 1980's-1999
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller
Yes
Crime plotlets:
- escape/rescue from kidnappers
General Crime (including known murderer)
Yes
Who's the criminal enemy here?
- finding a known killer
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- librarian or superKlausner
Age:
- 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 60's-90's
Profession/status:
- killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
Motive of antagonist
- insanity
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Intelligence
- Genius
Setting
United States
Yes
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
Amount of dialog
- significantly more dialog than descript
