{"id":5729,"date":"2026-09-17T01:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=5729"},"modified":"2026-11-05T16:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T16:24:29","slug":"the-bookbinders-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?p=5729","title":{"rendered":"The Bookbinder\u2019s Code"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1903 Oxford, Lilian &#8220;Lily&#8221; Delaney runs a bookbinding shop and bookstore with her business partner and mentor, John Caxton. At home, her boyfriend, Harry, wants to make things official and get married so they can stop pretending to be mere roommates, but Lily wants nothing to do with losing her identity, which is exactly what she fears will happen the moment she says yes to a ring. Then, a knock on the door sends Caxton spiraling: he closes the shop and disappears without explanation. Determined to find answers, Lily searches his office and uncovers a journal filled with coded messages. Deciphering them draws her into a web involving Caxton&#8217;s former colleagues; a legendary book, the Liber Numerorum (The Book of Numbers), which supposedly doesn&#8217;t even exist; and a ruthless man willing to kill for it. As Lily&#8217;s carefully built life unravels, her pursuit of the truth may cost her everything, including her life. Bell delivers a terrific follow-up to The Bookbinder&#8217;s Secret, unveiling another compelling mystery packed with codes, clues, and deception. What truly makes this series sing, though, is Lily herself, a fantastic character who would fit seamlessly into contemporary society. A woman with her talent, drive, and relentless pursuit of the truth in the early twentieth century has to fight twice as hard to solve the mystery and claim the life she wants. <strong>The rich glimpse into the world of bookbinding is a bonus to this outstanding book and great series.<\/strong><em>\u2014Jeff Ayers<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1903 Oxford, Lilian &#8220;Lily&#8221; Delaney runs a bookbinding shop and bookstore with her business partner and mentor, John Caxton. At home, her boyfriend, Harry, wants to make things official&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[110,240,232,54],"class_list":["post-5729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-20th-century","tag-books","tag-bookstores-libraries","tag-historical"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Bookbind-400x400.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/formidable\/4\/Bookbind-400x600.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Jeff Ayers","author_link":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/?author=6"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5751,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions\/5751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstcluereviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}