This is the follow up to The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Susan, Merlin and Vivien are all back. Susan’s well aware of her heritage as the daughter of one of the Ancient Sovereigns, but she’s trying to live as normal a life as possible.
Unfortunately, while Vivien and some of the other right handed booksellers are poking around in an old book collection they recently acquired, Merlin manages to get sucked into an old map, and Susan’s the only person who can rescue him on short notice. This gets them all involved in a series of murders, and pulls Susan back into the orbit of her father, the Old Man of Coniston.
This is a fun book – rather madcap, but with Merlin about, that’s bound to happen. This is definitely written so that it could be an end point, but it’s also not totally final, so I could see more coming out of this world.