It all starts with a book. Liza prefers her books old and fusty but she must make do with the shiny editions at Fangtasm, her local fantasy and mystery bookstore. But when bookseller Jack sees a classified for a bookshop at 666 Charing Cross Road, she writes to them begging for some new old reading material. Amongst the paperbacks with lurid covers she received a slightly moldy tome that fills her with dread. Her beagle, Rufus, knows it’s trouble but he’s only a dog and everyone just thinks he’s in a funny mood.
Meanwhile, Shelley has discovered an ancient effigy in the basement of the New York Museum of Outsider Art. She’s busy arranging an exhibition around the strangely alluring and smelly artifact but her boyfriend, Daniel, is acting a bit odd. He’s quite obsessed with her Aunt Liza’s latest book and is turning into a bit of a jerk.
I quite liked the bookish nature of the characters and the war between old and new books could probably mirror the ongoing debate around paper versus digital. Although books are at the centre of the story, it’s mostly a bit of fantasy fun, fighting evil and romances doomed to failure. It sort of felt like a cosy mystery with an edge (sex and blood included) and I’d be interested in reading Paul Magrs’ Whitby based series.
The prologue is the same text as chapter 11 which I found a bit odd. I’m used to the storyline starting in the past and working its way up to the present as in the prologue but to repeat the text seems a bit odd. It does give you a deja vu feeling as you read, I can imagine more so if you’re not reading in one sitting.
Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones
Elsewhere: Gav Reads
Related posts
4 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Read Next
Subscribe via Email
Recent Posts
The Boston Dynamics robots just want to dance https://t.co/DLtV4vTOca https://t.co/DLtV4vTOca
FollowHah someone was adding the UK edition of The Rookery onto Goodreads same time as me and just pipped me to the post on clicking save.
FollowCurrently Reading
Black Sun
Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so. The opening line may seem like something any mother would tell her son, but in the case of Serapio, his mother truly believes he will become the Crow God reborn. She blinds him,…
Legendborn
The day Bree gets accepted into an early college placement at UNC, is the day her mother dies. The last words they spoke were of anger. Unable to deal with her dad’s grief on top of her own, Bree goes ahead with the placement. Once…
Ninth House
Alex Stern does not belong at Yale. When she awakes as the sole survivor of a multiple homicide, presumed a drug deal gone wrong, she is given an unlikely offer. Come to Yale, join the House of Lethe and oversee the rituals of the other…
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
Just let me dust off this blog thing, I have a review for you! One of my anticipated reads released during lockdown was the follow-up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. If you read that, of course will will be dying to know what happened to…
This sounds interesting. I'll have to keep it in mind!
sounds interesting, thanks for the review. My keep my eyes peeled for this one
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
It looks interesting, an undemanding, light summer reading (or, as I also call them "commute books", perfect for the train ride back home).
Belated thank you for recommending this one.
I bought it today based on your fantastic review.