A Novel
A. D. Bell
Jan 13, 2026
Hardcover with dust jacket
Fiction / Historical / Books, Bookstores & Libraries / World Literature / England / 20th Century
A written confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book leads a young bookbinder on a hunt for the truth of the story, one of forbidden love, a lost fortune, and murder.
Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father’s failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man’s profession. But when she’s given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.
