The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

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. Now available in
paperback.
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 righthanded
booksellers (the intellectual ones), is part of 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
misspelled surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver hip flask 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 their
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.