The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran (Faber, £14.99)
American genre-bender Gran’s latest book is a biblio-mystery that poses the question of how far we will go to save someone we love; more insidiously, it examines how life has a habit of giving us both more and less than we desire. Having lost her writing mojo when her husband Abe developed a rare degenerative neurological disorder, promising young novelist Lily Albrecht now deals in antiquarian books to pay the ever-mounting bills for his care. When she finds herself on the trail of a vanishingly rare 17th-century manual of sexual magic, reputed to be the most powerful occult book ever written, Lily enlists the help of another dealer, Lucas. Initially, her motive is profit, but as she and Lucas enact the instructions contained in a facsimile of the volume, Lily regains her vitality and begins to hope that she can heal Abe. However, a lot of people connected with the book seem to end up dead, and the final step involves committing murder … Clever, sexy, insightful and exciting, this story of determination, self-deception and danger is well worth the read.
