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  • Published: 7 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529908794
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

The Society of Unknowable Objects





From the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Book of Doors comes a second fantastical, stand-alone novel in which a trio of seemingly everyday people are members of a secret society dedicated to finding and protecting hidden magical objects - ordinary items with extraordinary powers . . .

The 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

  • Published: 7 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529908794
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

About the author

Gareth Brown

Born in Falkirk, Gareth Brown wanted to be a writer from a very young age. He wrote his first (unpublished) novel when in his teens and short stories while at university. For the last twenty years he has worked in the UK Civil Service and is currently Director of Screening for NHS Scotland. An inveterate traveller, he particularly relishes the experience of arriving somewhere new: those first few hours of culture shock and noise and bustle in an unfamiliar city - a passion that influenced the writing of The Book of Doors.
Gareth Brown lives just outside Edinburgh.

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Praise for The Society of Unknowable Objects

Praise for Gareth Brown:

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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

The Society of Unknowable Objects utterly demolishes the difficult second book syndrome. A thrilling, globe-spanning adventure that wrong footed me at every turn, and like The Book of Doors, features a truly memorable villain.

ADAM SIMCOX, author of The Dying Squad

A fast-paced flight of magic, mystery and whimsy, whisking readers on an around-the-world adventure alongside a lovable cast of characters tasked with protecting the world’s most valuable secret — and perhaps keeping a few secrets of their own.

NIKKI ERLICK, author of The Measure
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