02553cam a2200337 i 4500 2688492042 TxAuBib 20260225120000.0 260114s2026||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2025037966 9781250412645 hardcover 1250412641 hardcover (OCoLC)1513886420 TxAuBib rda Bell, A. D, author. The bookbinder's secret / A.D. Bell. First U.S. edition. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2026. 388 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier "Every book tells a story. This one tells a secret. A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, 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. Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit. Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian's world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life"-- Provided by publisher. 20260225. Women bookbinders Fiction. Booksellers and bookselling Fiction. Book collectors Fiction. FEMINIST HISTORICAL MYSTERY FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS ENGLAND FAMILY DRAMA CHRISTMAS GIFTS FEMINISM OXFORD PAGE-TURNER DEBUT AUTHORS DETECTIVE LITERARY 19TH CENTURY. Historical fiction. lcgft TXAAL