The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Score: 4/5 Bookmarks
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London was exactly the magical escape I needed. It was my first Garth Nix book, but I dare say it won’t be my last.
In a nutshell, the Booksellers are the guardians keeping ‘Old World’ magical stuff from leaking through to modern-day London. The Right-Handed Booksellers are the brains of the operation, while the Left-Handed are the muscle.
Our heroine, Susan Arkshaw is on a search for her dad (whom she’s never met) when she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and falls smack dab into the middle of a Bookseller skirmish of sorts, and meets the altogether-too-handsome Merlin (a Left-Handed Bookseller). Things proceed to get wilder from there, and she’s exposed to a whole world she didn’t know existed.
I couldn’t find any evidence online that there will be a second Booksellers book but I sincerely hope there will be, because I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface of this alternate universe and I can’t wait to read more!
This book definitely has a Peter Grant / Rivers of London vibe to it, but for younger readers. So if you’re a fan of Ben Aaronovitch I dare say you’ll enjoy this as well. And if you haven’t read Rivers of London yet then you need to start on that series as soon as you’re finished with this book. Like, yesterday!
Fun fact, Garth Nix is Australian and went to the University of Canberra, in Australia, where I also studied my undergrad and graduate degrees.
Synopsis:
A girl’s quest to find her father leads her to an extended family of magical fighting booksellers who police the mythical Old World of England when it intrudes on the modern world. From the bestselling master of teen fantasy, Garth Nix.
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.
