BookSeller

GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION

THE BOOKSELLER

JOHNNY FRY AND JINX - BOOK 2

by Skeet Will

In the summer of 1886, eighteen-year-old Johnny Fry and his partner, Lemuel travel to San Francisco to open a bookstore. On the trip Lemuel is shot and wounded leaving Johnny and Greta, Lemuel’s blind teenage daughter, who have no experience in the business, to open and operate the new store on their own until her father is on his feet again. With help from friends who have traveled with him, Johnny figures things out and gets the store up and running. Annaliese, Johnny’s new wife, dreams of becoming a doctor and the idea behind the bookstore is to support them while she attends classes at the medical school in San Francisco.

Johnny’s circle of friends comes to include a freed slave who becomes Johnny’s mentor and guide through life, the slave’s companion, a woman who survived being orphaned in a Gold Camp by carrying a ten-inch Bowie knife behind her belt and by not being afraid to use it at need, Johnny’s best friend, Handy, a gentle giant from Minnesota, his half Indian wife and her mother who operated a store in the wilderness of Nineteenth-Century Wyoming, fifty miles from her closest neighbor, a cheerful man whose business is cleaning out the privies of the city, and the richest widow in San Francisco who becomes Johnny’s landlady and business partner.

With these people and others, including Jinx, his little black cat, Johnny is able to keep his feet through a fight over government corruption, a murder by assassination, the support, and growth of a blind mother learning to care for twins, and a venture into horse racing. With the help of these people, he uses his education, good sense, quick hands, and the love and support of a special woman to become a special man.

The is a story of people, friends, working together to survive and grow in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco.