"The Sinister Booksellers of Bath" by Garth Nix

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath (Mar. 21, 2023) by Garth Nix.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

Mythical trouble isn’t exclusive to London. The focus now is Bath. The booksellers of the Small Bookshop (which isn’t actually small) who police the Old World there keep close watch on the entity that inhabits the Roman Baths, Sulis Minerva, though it’s not that entity that’s the source of the trouble. Right-handed bookseller Vivien finds a sorcerous map amongst the extensive book collection of a deceased bibliophile. When her brother, Merlin, touches a bee from the map, he’s transported into a pocket dimension that’s been taken out of time and must be rescued by his sister and Susan Arkshaw. Susan wants to live a “normal” life, meaning she’d rather not be involved in the Old World, the mythical. But saving Merlin is only the start of the spiral. They need to discover the entity belonging to the map, not for general knowledge, but because the entity has murdered 26 people. The last one, Travis Zelley, was different, for he was also tortured. The Ancient Sovereign of the Alphabet House and her monstrous living statues of Purbeck marble must be stopped before the murderous cycle begins again. Because it’s no secret that A starts the alphabet, and there’s a certain demi-mortal whose surname begins with A...

            While I don’t want to have to battle living statues of Purbeck marble (or any stone, honestly), it’s great to dive back into Nix’s immersive fantasy world in a slightly altered 1983 in Bath, England. This is a remarkable romp that’s intricately crafted with fast pacing, an impressive cast, a complex but wickedly wacky plot and an array of vintage clothes, weapons and vehicles that’s overlaid with suspense as well as snark and humor. This magical madcap adventure has an old-school feel (no cell phones here, folks) and is a clever, thoroughly engaging, pseudo-historical YA novel.

            Book One: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London