Unbound (Mass Market Paperback)

The plot starts rolling when Alex and his author Angela Mayfield are within days of publishing a breakthrough novel about a famous old author - now long deceased - by the name of Marcus Stonecypher. Apparently, "The Stonecypher Saga" will be based on the premise that Stonecypher used to include secret codes within his novels, which were indicative of a secret political agenda that threatened to destroy world governments. Well, well... Anonymous, deadly auspicious messages start arriving at Alex's and Angela's door until she is involved in a horrible accident that leaves her comatose. Alex, in the meantime, vows to find out who could have done this to her friend when he is now the victim of almost sure death.

To reveal more would be too much. Let's just say that this is a novel with numerous twits and turns, were many plots seem to be on development at the same time. The settings are extremely cozy and one wishes to have the possibility of sharing them with the protagonists every single time: the cocktails, the conference at the chateaux in France, the bicycle ride in the French countryside; all truly, very much inviting. Towards the end of the book there's an episode where the late Princess of Wales takes centerstage, accompanied by her two sons. Although they are not mentioned by their actual names, the reader will immediately notice the reference to Diana and her sons, the princes William and Harry, at the book event. I can only imagine the novel was published before her unfortunate death, and because of that I'd like to think of this as a small tribute on behalf of the author.

In the end, "all's well that ends well" and both Alex and his elder brother Max find true love. Hopefully we won't have to deal with Alex's feelings for Sarah anymore in further novels. That would be a relief, especially because one cannot bear to imagine Alex with all his contained sexual tension (!). That aside, "Unbound", is what it claims to be: an intrigue amongst the world's best rare book collectors and restorers, and one that is a pleasure to read.

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As a drama or adventure story, Unbound gets pretty high marks, but the mystery element gets less attention than I would prefer. The story begins with protagonist Alex Plumtree being invited onto the board of the Folio B society, a society for the preservation of publically-owned rare British books, but from the beginning thereï¿s something remiss about being given this honor. A secret society, the Bibliati, which turns out to be mostly a subgroup of Folio B, consists of an unscrupulous lot who will stop at nothing to steal and/or fabricate rare books, then sell them for ill-gotten gain. The Bibliati also has a political agenda which revolves around doing away with the monarchy, and to this end they promote revisionist history to make royalty look bad.

Another main aspect of the plot involves a new author about to be published by Plumtree Press for her first novel, a fictional but fact-based account of the life of Marcus Stonecypher, a British writer of great fame. She has discovered that four of Stonecypherï¿s early 19th century books contain purposeful misprints, which when strung together spell out a radical political philosophy. Someone doesnï¿t want her book published. An attempt is made on her life, and soon thereafter Alexï¿s life is almost ended more than once as well. The really ironic thing is that Unbound itself has at least a dozen obvious misprints of its own! This book was poorly proof-read before it went to press. And, no, I donï¿t think they would form a sentence if these misprints were strung together! (This is all the more ironic since this is the only book in the ï¿Unï¿ series that contains numerous misprints.)

In this book, more than the others in the series, the reader is taught a lot about the world of rare books. Kaewert has obviously done considerable research in this area, and in the historical context for this story. In spite of the misprints, some extraneous non-mystery elements, and a somewhat protracted story line, I still find this story (and the others in the ï¿Unï¿ series) to be worth the read. British mystery fans and bibliophile types should enjoy it.

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