The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

A bit of a weird one. This starts off feeling very YA, with an extremely tell-don't-show first half, that rushes through a whole bunch of exposition before things finally pick-up, and get much more violent, in the second half. The story is a sub-Rivers of London urban fantasy, which is set, for no clear reason, in 1983. The author has an odd obsession with unnecessary detail, with the make of every car and gun clearly noted, as is the author of every book (of which there are lots). Whenever a gun is mentioned, the main character's ability to clearly identify the make and model is explained away as the result of a specific film or book (given that there is no other reason why the average British woman - or person in general - in 1983 would have such knowledge).

So, the second half makes the book readable, and gains it the 4th star, but otherwise this feel very uneven.