The Book Supremacy

While on their honeymoon in Paris, book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright Stone buys her husband, Derek, a gift that seems appropriate, a first edition of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me. They run into Ned Davies, an old friend of Derek’s from his days with MI6, and she shows him the gift. The newlyweds come home to San Francisco, and then learn that Ned has died. Brooklyn wonders if the stranger she saw observing them in Paris has anything to do with it. She lets it slide as she works with the owner of a spy shop to put her new Bond treasure on display. Then someone is killed in the spy shop and surveillance video reveals an intruder trying to steal the book. Multiple deaths and stories of spies and blackmail all seem to circle back to the novel. Unconventional and intricately plotted, this mystery builds in intensity, while the suspense is relieved by moments involving books, friends, and food.