About this title: In this literary thriller, a scholarly man named Alexander Short meets a man in the New York Public Library who wants him to find a missing "curiosity"--an antique French timepiece that has disappeared from his home. As Alexander is drawn into the case, he encounters a bizarre cast of characters, becomes fascinated with the arcane information he ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Theia
Date Published: 08/2001
ISBN-13:9780786866038ISBN:0786866039
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 512 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Theia
Date Published: 08/2001
ISBN-13:9780786866038ISBN:0786866039
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 512 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Theia
Date Published: 08/2001
ISBN-13:9780786866038ISBN:0786866039
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 512 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Theia
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780786866038ISBN:0786866039
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Brand New and Unread condition. Advance Reader's Copy in softcover. Will be well protected for safe shipping. 512 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"I'm a sucker of fiction in which a main character is a librarian -- that's how I ended up with this book.
The story sounded promising: a librarian who does research independently as a side job takes on the task of figuring out the meaning behind a collection of items that belonged to an 18th Century inventor for a wealthy (how convenient), eccentric client who is a bit of a mystery himself. There's also a kind of anti-love story goin on, and while parts of it are interesting, basically what's happening is that our hero-librarian's marriage is falling apart.
It is because of those passages in which he whines about his wife that I give this book low rating. Frequently, I felt he was bringing the demise of marriage on himself anyway. The bad-marriage subplot didn't really add anything to the overall story for me, and it had the added disadvantage of making the protagonist annoying and unlikeable.
I have not read the author's previous work. Since this story supposedly builds on a previous novel (A Case of Curiosities), perhaps that would have made a difference in my appreciation of the bad-marriage subplot."
"Ugh, usually I like mysterious books about librarians, so I'm not sure what made this one so incredibly dull and painful. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. Or maybe it actually was incredibly dull and painful."
"A fun novel. Sort of a detective story with a love conflict thrown in. Alex Short, a librarian, is hired by a rich guy to find a watch once owned by Marie Antoinette called the Grand Complications. of course he encounters other complications."
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