By Liz Soares
Peter Byerly has withdrawn from life after the death of his beloved wife, Amanda. He’s retreated to the cottage the two purchased in the English countryside, alone in his grief.
Books changed Peter’s life and brought him together with Amanda. He is a rare-book dealer by trade, and feels most at home in the musty presence of old tomes. When Peter finally ventures out, he heads to Wales, to a town known for its bookstores, and begins to browse.
He opens a volume, and a small watercolor painting falls out. It is--Amanda. How can that be? The work obviously dates from the Victorian era. Peter slips it into a copy of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood and buys the book.
Who is B.B., the artist who signed the painting? And how in the world could he have painted someone who looked exactly like Amanda?
The answer is a tangled tale, indeed. Charlie Lovett, a former antiquarian bookseller, has written a suspenseful, romantic and intriguing novel that literally spans centuries.
He tells the story through three threads, which develop in alternating chapters. Peter begins his quest to identify the mysterious B.B. in 1995. Then we go back to 1983, when he is a student at Ridgefield University. Peter is an anxious young man from an impoverished background, but he finds the two loves of his life--old books and Amanda--through his job in the college library.
The third storyline begins in 1596 London, and involves a manuscript that may have served as the basis for Shakespeare’s The Winter Tale, and which The Bard himself has written notes upon.
It soon becomes clear that Peter’s search for B.B. is somehow entwined with the journey of that manuscript through the years, as it is passed from one owner to the next. The portrait of Amanda, however, remains a mystery right until the end, tantalizing readers.
The plot twists several times before the truth is revealed, and all threads neatly tied. Murder, love, stupidity, schemes, ghosts and obsession are all here. So is the story of a broken man who ultimately triumphs--because of his love of books.
Books changed Peter’s life and brought him together with Amanda. He is a rare-book dealer by trade, and feels most at home in the musty presence of old tomes. When Peter finally ventures out, he heads to Wales, to a town known for its bookstores, and begins to browse.
He opens a volume, and a small watercolor painting falls out. It is--Amanda. How can that be? The work obviously dates from the Victorian era. Peter slips it into a copy of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood and buys the book.
Who is B.B., the artist who signed the painting? And how in the world could he have painted someone who looked exactly like Amanda?
The answer is a tangled tale, indeed. Charlie Lovett, a former antiquarian bookseller, has written a suspenseful, romantic and intriguing novel that literally spans centuries.
He tells the story through three threads, which develop in alternating chapters. Peter begins his quest to identify the mysterious B.B. in 1995. Then we go back to 1983, when he is a student at Ridgefield University. Peter is an anxious young man from an impoverished background, but he finds the two loves of his life--old books and Amanda--through his job in the college library.
The third storyline begins in 1596 London, and involves a manuscript that may have served as the basis for Shakespeare’s The Winter Tale, and which The Bard himself has written notes upon.
It soon becomes clear that Peter’s search for B.B. is somehow entwined with the journey of that manuscript through the years, as it is passed from one owner to the next. The portrait of Amanda, however, remains a mystery right until the end, tantalizing readers.
The plot twists several times before the truth is revealed, and all threads neatly tied. Murder, love, stupidity, schemes, ghosts and obsession are all here. So is the story of a broken man who ultimately triumphs--because of his love of books.
