The Bookbinder's Secret -- A. D. Bell, Hardcover

Every book tells a story. This one tells a secret.

A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder.

Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father's failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man's profession. But when she's given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.

Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit.

Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian's world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.

Author: A. D. Bell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 01/13/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.12w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781250412645

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2025 pg. 91
Publishers Weekly 10/20/2025

About the Author
A.D. BELL lives in Oxford, haunting the city's bookshops on the weekend, writing in its cafés, and walking the winding paths of her characters.