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The Grand Complication
  • Published: 1 April 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099436850
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99

The Grand Complication



A wonderfully entertaining literary crime novel, a cross between The Name of the Rose and The Big Sleep.

Alexander Short is a stylish young reference librarian. With his job in jeopardy and his marriage coming apart, Alexander meets the improbably named Henry James Jesson III, a book-lover who hires the librarian for some after-hours research. His task: to complete a cabinet of curiosities chronicling the life of a mysterious eighteenth-century inventor. As the investigation heats up, Alexander realizes there are many more secrets lurking in Jesson's cloistered world than those found inside his elegant Manhattan town house-

  • Published: 1 April 2003
  • ISBN: 9780099436850
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Allen Kurzweil

Allen Kurzweil is the author of four novels, including A Case of Curiosities. He is currently a Fellow at Brown University's John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilisation. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife and son.

Praise for The Grand Complication

This attention to detail lends a satisfying completeness to the novel. Kurzweil also displays the journalists ability to explore varied subjects making this an engaging story that deftly and wittily satiates at every level.

Times Play