Second in a series. Considerably better than the first outing, but a significant problem remains in that the lead character, bookseller Matthew Coll, is largely unsympathetic as a protagonist. He is boorish when it comes to women, insensitive about using friends for short term advantage, and so enamored of his baseless assumptions that he misses obvious facts. The mystery in the present volume is reasonably engaging, but we root less than Coll (and I hate the name) than find him annoying.

Stylistically, the author seems to be confused about the genre of his book; for the most part it is written from the view of Coll, but following him as it happens; twice in the book Coll breaks to address the reader, which makes it an altogether different kind of book. Is it his own account of his adventures, or are we watching as it unfolds?

Finally, it is charming as they speak of photostatic copies as the cutting edge of technology. How many old time mysteries would never have happened if they had had cell phones? ( )

Matt Coll is in London to bid at aution for an American univerity, to purchase a manuscript/diary of the 17th century woman, Emilia Lanier, the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnetts. Is it a forgery? The Dutch professor who discovered the diaries is murdered, and another murder follows of a paper expert. ( )