Brown, Gareth

Crime & mystery

Published on 7 August 2025 by Transworld Publishers Ltd (Bantam (Transworld)) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 352 pages
163 x 242 x 37 | 626g

From the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Book of Doors comes a second fantastical, stand-alone novel bursting with adventure and magic and heart. A handful of very ordinary individuals are members of a rather extraordinary society – its sole purpose being to track down unknowable objects that are out there, hiding in plain sight, to keep these items safe from the outside world . . . and the outside world safe from them. Get ready to be spellbound by the new, fantastical novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of fantasy sensation The Book of Doors . . . ‘A dazzling, globe-trotting thriller with a spectacular dash of magic. Like Michael Crichton at his finest, but with fantasy. Brilliant stuff!’ SUNYI DEAN, bestselling author of The Book EatersThe world of unknowable objects – magical items that most people have no idea possess powers – has been quiet for decades . . . But three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world – and keep the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artefact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends the Society’s newest member, author Magda Sparks, to investigate.

Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is facing death and danger, confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artefact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.

Returning to London, Magda learns hers is not the only secret being kept from the other two members. And that the most pernicious secret is about the nature of the Society’s mission. Her discoveries will lead her on a perilous journey, across the Atlantic to the deep south of the United States – not in pursuit of an unknowable object, but an unknowable person- the killer she first faced in Hong Kong. In doing so, Magda begins to understand that there are even more in the world who are chasing these magical items, and that her own family’s legacy is tied up in keeping all these secrets under wraps.

Magic has always been too powerful to reveal to the world. But Magda will learn there might be something even more powerful- the truth.

Praise for Gareth Brown’s The Book of Doors-‘Joyful, exuberant, and crackling with adventure. This book is as magical as those it celebrates.’ STUART TURTON, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’A stunning fever dream of a story that feels completely real – don’t miss this fantastic thriller debut.’ LEE CHILD’A real page-turner – incredibly ambitious and inventive, The Book of Doors is a great read.’ROSIE ANDREWS, author of The Leviathan