Cassie Andrews would be the first to admit that she doesn’t have much of a life. In her thirties, she works in a bookstore, doesn’t have many friends, and no family. But when the kind old gentleman, Mr. Webber, dies reading The Count of Monte Cristo right in the bookstore, she feels a pang of grief that reminds her of her grandfather, the one who raised her.
Next to Mr. Webber’s body is a nondescript little book. Cassie picks it up to examine it and finds an inscription on the front page which leaves the little volume to her. It is filled with drawings and doodles, most of the written text unintelligible, save for an inscription that reads, “The Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand and any door is every door.”
Puzzled, she keeps it and takes it home. Her roommate and only friend in New York City, Izzy, is waiting. As Cassie tells her about her day and poor Mr. Webber, she keeps the book close by. It was so unremarkable that Cassie forgets about it and daydreams about a bakery she visited in Venice during the year she spent traveling. With that image in her head, she picks up The Book of Doors and goes to her room. But behind the door is not her bedroom but the exact scene in Venice she had just pictured. And it isn’t just a scene—Cassie realizes she can step through the door into the actual Venice.
Cassie and Izzy spend a wild night learning what the book can do. It opens doors all over the world. They explore first with hesitancy and a bit of trepidation, but as the night wears on, they find the joy of stepping into new worlds blocks or continents away.
What they don’t realize is that they are spotted. Someone out there sees them disappear through a door and knows what is happening, and that someone has special books of his own: the Book of Luck and the Book of Shadows to name two. Drummond Fox knows much more as well. He knows there are many more books like The Book of Doors out there and powerful people in the world would pay big money or even kill to get their hands on one. Drummond sets out to find Cassie and Izzy, and with his Book of Luck, he does.
But what are Drummond Fox’s intentions? Who is the shadowy figure known only as “the woman” who will gleefully murder for possession of all the books? And where can Izzy and Cassie hide where they will be safe?
Gareth Brown has constructed a whirlwind of a story, filled with action, adventure, and fantasy. Fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus or Matt Haig’s Midnight Library will be gripped by the roller-coaster plot and the fantastical elements. Like The Book of Joy, this one was a joy to hold.
∞ Author's Profile
Gareth Brown has been writing since he was a child. He has worked in the UK Civil Service and the NHS while writing in his spare time. The Book of Doors, his debut novel, will be published simultaneously in the UK and the US this month. He lives near Edinburgh, Scotland with his wife.
The Book of Doors
by Gareth Brown
Publisher: William Morrow
416 Pages
$30 US | Released 2.13.24