When trouble from the London trade spills south, Susan Arkshaw follows threads from the capital to the curving streets of Bath, where a different and more cultured danger awaits. The books there are polished, fashionable and lethal in a new way: they seduce with manners and rules, wrapping threats in genteel etiquette. Susan must adapt her hard-earned instincts to a place that values appearances above all, while the trade’s quiet rivalries sharpen into something far more dangerous. Across Bath’s crescents and pump rooms, alliances shift and old debts surface. Susan finds that every polite conversation can hide a double meaning and that the elegant bindings of Bath conceal darker, older designs. As she learns to read both books and people, Susan faces choices that will bind together the fates of the Left-Handed Booksellers in London and the sinister new players in Bath, challenging her to protect what she loves without losing herself in the process.
Honours and achievements received
