Julie Kaewert

What a surprise read, so much better than I was expecting and I definitely want to read the other books in the series. Books about books is fast becoming my favourite genre! Combine some mystery and mayhem, one very rare book and 45 bibliophiles with a few unexpected murders and this novel rockets along in the vein of an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers. I really enjoyed the build up of excitement and tension that follows this exceptionally precious little - untitled book. First of all it show more is discovered mysteriously hidden in a private library, only to be stolen then amazingly recovered. During a helicopter flight to return it to safety it gets thrown out of the window, assumed lost forever, only to be picked up in the middle of a farmer's paddock! I loved it. show less

This is the second book in the Alex Plumtree series, in which the owner of Plumtree Press, a small London-based publishing house, becomes entangled in a dangerous secret society that is somewhat reminiscent of the Illuminati. The society first announced its intention to overthrow monarchies and create a single world government through deliberate misprints in the first editions of novels by Plumtree Press author Marcus Stonecypher. A Stonecypher scholar, Angela Mayfield, has discovered these show more misprints and written a Da Vinci Code-style novel revealing her discovery -- and Plumtree is publishing the novel. That is, unless the secret society manages to do away with Angela and Alex.

I first read this series in high school and am revisiting it as part of an ongoing project to reread books from my youth. I admire my younger self's patience; this was over 400 pages long and is very repetitive. Bad things keep happening to Alex, he manages to extract himself with the help of others, and then he has to explain the conspiracy to whoever has just helped him. This happens regularly enough to cause the reader to skim pages. I also had issues with the writing style, namely the excessive use of adverbs and narration explaining what the characters felt, in case you didn't get the memo with their dialogue.

Nevertheless, I did (and still do) enjoy the premise, and Alex does make a likeable protagonist, with his family history of publishing and his quest to marry the love of his life, Sarah. And now that I've actually been to London, something my younger self might have considered impossible, I appreciated the setting so much more. Those who have been to Bloomsbury in particular will likely be able to find their way around the world of this book easily.

Also: Alex and Sarah use faxes to send letters to each other. Romantic for the time, yes, but also very amusing from a 2013 perspective. These days they would send mushy emails.

So would I recommend this? Possibly. If you like the idea of the series, you might as well give it a shot. My rating is perhaps on the harsh side, given the memories that this series holds for me, but I still intend to continue revisiting the books and keeping them on the shelf. show less

If a mystery has a "Had I But Known" on page 6, it's a bad sign. Also, this book had some of the same problems as its predecessor in the series: namely, that after each event, the protagonist has to explain it to three different people before the next event occurs. I did, however, find it interesting that the book touches on issues surrounding Britain's place in the EU; it's still a timely issue today.

I enjoy this series. The writing isn't fluff and can be a little complex with the various references to groups historical and present, but all in all a great read.