In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn't get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.
Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.
Susan's search for her father begins with her mother's possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.
Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan's. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.
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It was 5:42 am on May Day, 1983, in the West of England, and a sliver of the sun had edged above the ridge.
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(@Bolindaaudio, 22 September 2020, audiobook, 11 hrs 16 mins, borrowed from @NACLibraries via @BorrowBox)
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I'm a huge fan of the author. I've wanted to read The Left-Handed Booksellers of London for ages. I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. This is typical of the author's work, a fantastic blend of fantasy and reality. I was engrossed from start to finish. The book gets pretty dark at times as Susan tries to track down her father, supposedly an ancient one and becomes more embroiled with the Bookseller's and the sinister Old World. This is a fantastic book. I loved it. I can't wait to listen to the next one, The Sinister Booksellers of Bath.
