Ex-Libris

By Dora M. Kalff

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 Ross King 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. A Book Sense 76 pick This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802733573
• ISBN13: 9780802733573
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Walker Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.7" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

17th-century books as plunder and as weapons

London is a city of coal cinders and rat droppings -- at the first level this is a gritty, detailed evocation of everyday urban life in the 1660s by a remarkably young author. At a second it's a pleasingly intelligent bibliothriller, exploring not only the period's book trade but also the value and power of the private libraries of royals and the nobility both as prizes to plunder and as ideological weapons to deploy in the...

A terrific and literate story

I picked up Ex-Libris because I loved the cover art - and was soon engrossed in its contents, rabidly turning page after page, all the way through the epilogue.Ex-Libris is the story of mild-mannered bookseller and self-described homebody, Isaac Inchbold, set in 1670 London. His quiet, predictable life is disrupted by a intriguing letter from a widow, who retains his services to locate a missing, and purportedly valuable,...

an excellent historical thriller

I initially fell in love with the cover art of Ross King's Ex Libris, but soon was totally engrossed in the content of its pages instead.The story involves a mid-1600's London bookseller name Isaac Inchbold who is by self description, a softening bookworm who craves the comfort and regularity of his carefully organized life. His departure from his humdrum existence is precipitated by a simple letter, soliciting his help in...

A fine literary historical mystery

In 1660, Lady Marchamont petitions London bookseller Isaac Inchbold proprietor of Nonsuch Books to visit her in Dorsetshire. Since Isaac never leaves London and is such a creature of habit, anyone who knows him is stunned when he decides to travel to the countryside. Yet the strange note sends an intrigued Isaac journeying to Pontifex Hall.Lady Marchamont hires Isaac to restore her library to its former glory before looters...