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<This is the first novel in a series.>
It is 1983 in a slightly alternate London where Susan
Arkshaw has recently turned 18 and is set on finding her father. Crime boss
Frank Thringley might have answers, but Susan doesn’t get to question him
before she witnesses him turning to dust at the prick of a silver
hatpin at the left hand of the outrageously attractive Merlin St.
Jacques/Upbright (FYI: he’s attractive even whilst donning a dress). Susan’s
life is changing for the weirder. She learns that Merlin, a “left-handed
bookseller” who belongs to an extended family (clan) of magical fighting
booksellers (the right-handed are more the intellectual ones), helps police the
Old World (mythical) to protect the New World (modern). They also run several
bookshops about London. Susan’s search for her father contains pieces of her
mother’s memories of first names and surnames, but none which appear to match
the other and may be misremembered entirely. Meanwhile, Merlin has his own
self-launched quest: to find the entity who had his mother killed. Together
with Vivien, his right-handed bookseller sister, the two of them traverse a
path with Susan and find that their quests strangely overlap with one another’s.
Now that Susan is aware, it’s as though the Old World is suddenly erupting
dangerously into the New. Who is Susan’s father? And why do Old World
inhabitants and New World criminals keep trying to abduct her?
What a
fantastical, otherworldly journey of imaginative, mythical proportions! My
first story from Nix shot me out of a cannon, so involved in the story was I
from the get-go. This YA fantasy is immersive, clever and inventive with its
melded fey elements and spectacular bookshops. Susan is wonderfully
unflappable, and gender-fluid Merlin is deliciously charming. This adventurous
romp is diverse, its magic compelling, the world-building exquisite and the
varied personalities so entertaining. I love this expansive, magical London.
This tale is an experience!
P.S. I want
to be one of the even-handed.
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