From Publishers Weekly
Isaac Inchbold, middle-aged proprietor of Nonsuch Books, has never traveled more than 24 leagues from London, where by 1660 he has made his home above his bookshop for 25 years. King (Domino) opens his finely wrought tale with Inchbold's receipt of a strange letter from an unknown woman, Alethea Greatorex, or Lady Marchamont. Surprising himself and his apprentice, Tom Monk, Inchbold consents to visit her at Pontifex Hall, in Dorsetshire. Once he arrives at the crumbling manor house, Lady Marchamont shows him its extraordinary library and sets him a strange task: he is to track down a certain ancient and heretical manuscript, The Labyrinth of the World, missing from her collection and identifiable by her father's ex libris. Withholding much relevant informationAsuch as the reasons that her husband and father were murderedAshe offers him a sum greater than his yearly income, but gives no reason other than that she wishes the collection undiminished. When he accepts the job, Inchbold is drawn into a clandestine, centuries-old battle over the manuscriptAhis every move, it seems, dictated by some unseen hand. King expertly leads his protagonist through an endless labyrinth of clues, discoveries and dangers, all the while expertly detailing 17th-century Europe's struggles over religion and knowledge. He interweaves a subplot describing the manuscript's journey from Prague to Pontifex Hall that involves theft, flight and murder. The world of the novel is satisfyingly complete, from its ornate syntax and vocabulary to the Dickensian names of its characters (Phineas Greenleaf, Dr. Pickvance, Nat Crumb); its beleaguered, likable narrator is fully developed; and its fast-paced action is intricately conceived. Fans of literary thrillers by the likes of Eco, Hoeg and Perez-Reverte will delight in this suspenseful, confident and intelligent novel. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Isaac Inchbold, the asthmatic proprietor of Nonsuch Books on London Bridge, is an unassuming hero, drawn into a dangerous game of duplicity and intrigue when he is asked to track down an elusive manuscript in the summer of 1660. The Labyrinth of the World, marked with the ex-libris of intrepid collector Sir Ambrose Plessington, may be a little-known Hermetic text, a map of the lost city of El Dorado, or a heretical document capable of causing vast political upheaval. It is also being sought by a menacing trio of men in black, whom Inchbold must outwit to survive. King (Domino; Brunelleschi's Dome) has created a literary historical thriller in the vein of The Name of the Rose. It delivers fascinating but arcane facts about ciphers, Mercator maps, astronomy, and invisible ink in an engaging tale that only occasionally becomes tedious. For all fiction collections. Christine Perkins, Jackson Cty. Lib. Svcs., OR Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
King's remarkable literary thriller combines the layered, multifaceted narrative style of Iain Pears' Instance of the Fingerpost with Dorothy Dunnett's broad-canvas grasp of English history. The story, set in 1660s London (about the time of Pears' Fingerpost), sparkles with intrigue and adventure, offering a heady mix of literature, history, politics, and philosophy and taking readers from ancient Rome to the sack of Constantinople and England's Civil War. Unassuming London bookseller Isaac Inchbold receives a mystifying summons from the mysterious Lady Marchamont of Pontifex Hall. She offers him the vast sum of 100 to recover a single rare book stolen from her father's once-magnificent library. Accepting the task, Inchbold is instantly immersed in a world of intrigue, treachery, and murder; assaulted by dangerous, desperate men; and frustrated by a puzzling trail of bizarre clues and vaguely threatening hints about the whereabouts of the missing book. There is clearly more to the story than Lady Marchamont has told him, and Inchbold is fascinated, terrified, and nearly destroyed by the murky and disquieting truth as it begins to emerge. Both here and in his recent award-winning nonfiction work Brunelleschi's Dome [BKL O 15 00], King's writing reflects a vast and remarkable knowledge of European politics, history, art, literature, socioeconomics, and religion. (See King's comments on his work in "Story behind the Story," opposite page.) Ex-Libris requires some effort on the part of readers, but it will be amply rewarded by King's provocative plot, brilliant craftsmanship, and ability to make the people, places, and events of the past sparkle with life. This is a superbly written must-read worthy of five stars. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
?A suitably labyrinthine plot? Above all, it is King?s sheer gift for storytelling that makes Ex Libris such an enjoyable read.? -- The Oxford Times

?Highly original and very clever indeed.? -- Manchester Evening News

?An exquisite historical thriller and a story which twists and turns like the beautifully-evoked back streets of 17th century London.? -- Yorkshire Evening Post

?Ross King is a master craftsman of extravagant melodrama.? -- Irish Times


Book Description
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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.