Brooklyn Wainwright and her husband Derek are on honeymoon in Paris, enjoying the foods, wines and sights. From a book stall, Brooklyn picks up a first edition James Bond hardback book, The Spy Who Loved Me. She brings it home to San Francisco and finds that it’s worth a lot more than she paid. THE BOOK SUPREMACY, a play on thriller The Bourne Supremacy, involves a lot of secret agent doings.

I love Kate Carlisle’s Fixer Upper Mystery series about a building contractor, Shannon Hammer. Because I’m jumping into this alternative series midway, I’m not sure what Derek’s surname is, but Brooklyn awkwardly says that her surname is Wainright Stone, so I’m guessing he’s Derek Stone. Derek, who is Home Counties English, has previously served Her Majesty as a spy. Now the midlife pair are trying to put all that behind them. One of Derek’s friends, however, met him in Paris and seems to be still involved, while another one has opened a so-called spy store in San Francisco, selling security gadgets and hidden cameras.

Derek runs a security firm but at his time of life, he mainly makes phone calls and computer searches. Brooklyn is a bibliophile, meaning book lover, and works as a bookbinder. She describes carefully restoring a couple of elderly books to good condition. The spy store owner, Owen Gibbons, also runs fun escape rooms in his shop, called Spectre. Brooklyn just has to give this a try. A good third of the story elapses without any murder, but it’s entertaining, and when Brooklyn offers to let Owen exhibit her new James Bond book, the reader can expect this will cause trouble.

I like the small group of newbie crime writers who gather to compare chapters and give moral support. Writing could be anti-social, so they are making a social event of their hobby. With the fame of James Bond, when someone attempts to steal the first edition, it needn’t be a book lover who’s responsible. There is a death to investigate, which both scares Brooklyn and ties her up in sleuthing. Derek does much of the work.

THE BOOK SUPREMACY can be read as a standalone, but the cast of friends and relatives would probably mean more if you’ve been following the Bibliophile Mystery series. Kate Carlisle always writes about practical sleuths who are good with their hands. Brooklyn just happens to use endpapers and gum instead of hammers and saws. I enjoyed the read and dipping into the vibrant city atmosphere of San Francisco, with its nearby vineyards.