The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath is the second book in Garth Nix's Booksellers series, after The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Nix is the Sydney author behind the Old Kingdom books, and this series is his take on a magical, slightly askew 1980s England.

The booksellers are a family who quietly police the Old World, the mythic England that keeps trying to break through into the modern one. The left-handed ones fight; the right-handed ones read and reason. When a sorcerous map leads the bookseller Merlin into danger in Bath, his sister Vivien and their friend Susan Arkshaw set out after him, into a place guarded by living statues of stone and haunted by an ancient killer known as the Lady of Stone.

Young adult fantasy for readers around 14 and up, and for adults who like their magic grounded in real places. It reads best after Book 1. Winner of the 2024 Ditmar Award for best novel.

For readers of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

'This is the book for anyone who has ever said "I don't read fantasy."' Fran Atkinson, Sydney Morning Herald