Ex-Libris

A cryptic summons to a remote country house launches Isaac Inchbold a London bookseller and antiquarian on an odyssey through seventeenth-century Europe. Charged with the task of restoring a magnificent library destroyed by the war Inchbold moves between Prague and the Tower Bridge in London his fortunes--and his life--hanging on his ability to recover a missing manuscript. Yet the lost volume is not what it seems and his search is part of a treacherous game of underworld spies and smugglers ciphers and forgeries. Inchbold's adventure is compelling from beginning to end as <b>Ross King</b> vividly recreates the turmoil of Europe in the seventeenth century--the sacks of great cities; Raleigh's final voyage; the quest for occult knowledge; and a watery escape from three mysterious horsemen.<p>A Book Sense 76 pick</p>