Greetings Booklovers!

I don’t know about you all, but I spent way too much time this week scrubbing with La-Mar Reducing Soap to shrink my ungainly ankles and unbecoming wrists! Onward instead to our mystery…

Welcome to our first discussion of The Librarian of Crooked Lane. We will be discussing Chapters 1-6 here, so if you read ahead, please do not write any spoilers beyond this section.

We will gather questions for C.J. Archer’s AMA (scheduled for Sept 10th/11th depending on time zones) during our 3rd and final discussion. If this section triggered any questions for our author, feel free to jot them down below or in the Marginalia.

Summary of Chapters 1 to 6

Sylvia Ashe lost her brother, James, in World War I and her mother to the Spanish Flu. She has never spoken to her father and her mother never spoke of him. The events of the book seem to take place in London in the 1920’s.

Sylvia moved around regularly with her mother and didn’t put down deep roots. She worked as a journalist before getting a job at the London Philosophical Society’s Library.

An article about Gabe Glass, a handsome, rich war hero and future Lord who seems to be the most eligible bachelor in town catches Sylvia’s attention. Gabe’s mother (Lady Rycroft) is the famed magician, India Glass who gave up magic to marry her unmagical (“artless”) husband and is an advisor to the government of magical polices.

India’s name is familiar, so Sylvia reads her deceased brother’s notebooks and learns that James believed he was a silversmith magician, and he also writes about India Glass. Sylvia has her doubts that the family has magic in their blood as her mother was a seamstress and her father a teacher. But she wonders if James knew India.

Her good artist friend, Daisy Carmichael, lives off her inheritance and lounges under Sylvia’s desk all day. Daisy helps her crash a society party at the Royal Academy where her friend Horatio is exhibiting art so they can corner Gabriel to get to his mother, India.

Disguised as a server, Sylvia begs Gabriel to let her meet his mother so she can learn more about her past. He informs her his parents just left for America.

Butler Ludlow the Lug and Lady Stanhope are unimpressed with Sylvia and Daisy’s serving skills at the party and fire them on the spot. Lady Stanhope is married to the Academy’s member, Sir Richard Stanhope and she coordinates private viewings and the artists.

Sylvia and Daisy continue to hound Gabriel outside the event. A black automobile moves out from behind his horse drawn cart and attempts to kidnap Gabriel. (I am struggling to picture a world where horse drawn carts safely interact regularly with cars as the world transitions.) Sylvia kicks the kidnapper and Gabriel escapes while the kidnappers tear away. Gabriel thought the car belonged to his driver, Dodson, because he was distracted by the ladies.

Alex Bailey also acted as an undercover server and was looking out for Gabe when not flirting with Daisy. Back at the boarding House of Horrors run by Mrs. Witchy Whitten, Alex and Gabe show up. Turns out they work with the police to help solve cases where magic is involved. They are working a case involving the theft of a magical painting and suspect the kidnapping attempt was linked to the case.

Syvia tries to contact the Silversmiths’ guild but finds them closed and realizes she doesn’t understand her family tree enough to move forward with the search with them. Silver magic is rare and if one parent is artless and the other magic, there is a 50% chance the children will be artless.

Her misogynistic boss, Mr. Permiter, fires her from the London Philosophical Society’s Library for not removing her makeup talking with Gabe at the library. Gabe’s brilliant idea is that he thinks she might be a silversmith since her name is Sylvia.

Horatio gets Sylvia work at the Royal Academy with Mr. Bolton to oversee the moving crew. Tommy Allen, another misogynist, is there working for Sylvia. Sylvia becomes suspicious when she spies a piece of art with what appears to be an extra canvas on the back.

When Sylvia goes to let Gabe know of her suspicions, she meets a woman who is his father’s cousin, Wild West Willie Johnson, wears trousers (GASP) and has the manners of an alley cat tiger. Bristow the butler politely brings tea.

Gabe drives Sylvia in his Vauxhall Prince Henry and confirms that the painting was tampered with but is not the one they are seeking but the suspect must be associated with the exhibit. He drives her to Crooked Lane where he has helped get her a new job working at THE GLASS LIBRARY (yes, India Glass) which houses a great collection of magic books. Professor Nash, who curated the books with a friend, agrees to hire her.

We learn that Gabe is artless and doesn’t like to read (GASP).

Horatio brings Sylvia a canvas with a Tower Bridge painted on it and insists on coming to her room. Bonus question: Will Sylvia KEEP INNOCENCE and how long before Mrs. Witchy Whitten kicks her out of the boarding house?

At the Royal Academy, Lady Stanhope and Butler Ludlow the Lug show up and try to fire Sylvia from her job. Mr. Bolton saves her and speculates that it is suspicious they were there counting receipts when the viewing ended days ago. Misogynistic Mr. Allen disappears from her work crew. When Sylvia goes to investigate, she finds herself thrown to the ground in a storage room.

Duhn, Duhn, Duhn

See you in the Comments below!

Next week we will discuss Chapters 7 to 12 on Friday September 1st. Reading Schedule