An unusual story, but one which kept me reading. I did almost give up once or twice as I found there were so many threads and characters, but once I'd got past that then I couldn't stop reading. It's a complex tale with several threads, and it takes a while to see how they will interact. I do think it was far too long though, with too much unnecessary detail in each thread, and a bit too much gratuitous sex which didn't add to the story.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

I waited to read this book & I don't know why. I was intrigued by the title and the premise of a bookstore featuring antiquarian books, but didn't fully grasp the rest of the storyline until I was invested in the characters. This is NOT a nice story about a bookseller, but a Stephen King-like story.

The idea of an evil entity that occupies bodies throughout history (including Genghis Khan & Hitler) and how that ties into George & Elizabeth (the booksellers) is a suspenseful tale. Unfortunately, the writing causes the action to drag and the descriptive text is sometimes far too graphic. The story switches time and place too often, there are far too many characters, and one couple that was particularly endearing disappears about halfway in without explanation only to reappear (almost as an afterthought) in the epilogue. Most annoying though is the author's tendency to repeat the story from multiple points of view and to go into great detail about the thoughts of each character. This extends the text (makes the book longer), but (frankly) gets really boring. I found myself skipping pages.

Ultimately, though, this is an innovative look at evil in the world. The book is populated with some great characters (including a dog!) and the action is swift (when the author isn't repeating himself). It's a book worth reading, I just wanted more and had a difficult time overlooking the quirks I mentioned above.