The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams

Author:Ellery Adams [Adams, Ellery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Human society, the world, and the whole of mankind is to be found in the alphabet.

—Victor Hugo

The next morning, Nora saw that she’d missed calls from Bobbie and McCabe. She’d muted her phone at the Pink Lady and had left it that way for the rest of the night.

Bobbie had also sent a text: Where are you? I have info on your mystery books.

Nora carried a mug of coffee to her kitchen table, booted up her laptop, and called Bobbie.

“It’s about time!” Bobbie bellowed. “Do you know how much I wish you still lived in the city? I’d love to drop by your apartment with a bottle of wine and some Thai takeout. I’d love to meet up for coffee and a massive book-buying session. Just think of all the things we’d be doing if you were here.”

“I wish we lived closer too,” Nora said. “Why don’t you take early retirement and move to Miracle Springs? We could run the bookshop together.”

Bobbie groaned. “Don’t tempt me. I have a budget meeting this afternoon. I was supposed to make cuts, but I’m asking for more money instead.”

“You’ll get it too. You could sell water to a drowning man.”

Bobbie chuckled. “My dad used to say that I could sell ham at a Bar Mitzvah.”

Their mingled laughter erased the distance between them. They could have been back in college, talking late into the night about everything and anything.

“If you ever want to get away, you know I’d love to see you. You could book the same room at the Inn of Mist and Roses,” said Nora. “But we can talk about that later. What’d you dig up on the Lady Artist books?”

“First of all, I want you to be impressed by my thoroughness. I talked to not one, not two, but three experts. I can practically write a dissertation on gender roles in Modernist literature, women who wrote under male pseudonyms, and female characters in American literature from Reconstruction to the Interwar period.”

Nora was confused. “What about the connection to British lit? The characters and setting are British.”

“My decisions to focus on the American aspect has nothing to do with the content of the books and everything to do with the cover design.” After pausing to let this sink in, Bobbie said, “How many different Lady Artist covers have you seen?”

Nora said, “Three up close. Online, I’d say four or five.”

“When you say up close, what do you mean? Did you hold the books in your hand? Did you use a magnifying glass or a jeweler’s loupe?”

Nora picked up her coffee mug, saw that it was empty, and frowned. “I looked at them with my eyes only. No magnifying tools. Why? What did I miss?”

“Now we’re at the fun part.” Bobbie was positively giddy. “It wasn’t until I cornered a devilishly charming art history professor and author of multiple books on Art Nouveau that I learned that certain book designers from this time period added symbols to their covers. With one exception, these artists were all men.

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