Finding Melancholy by Lachlan Standfield

James Connor has a choice to make. Should he put his hand into the ancient box placed in front of him, or should he walk away?

If he chooses to walk away he’ll go back to packing supermarket shelves for less than six bucks an hour. Answering to spotty teens less than half his age. Living in a dangerous slum on the edge of the city. The life of an ex-con.

If Connor chooses the box he will enter the employ of Mr Valk, a purveyor of oddities and collectables. A man that conducts his business from behind screens and through intermediaries. A man desperately trying to retrieve his precious book, ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy.’

With the help of an eccentric book collector, Gerber, and his pet crow, Dido, Connor will fight to make sense of it all.

By the end Connor will learn the truth about the ancient box, the death of his lover and the eyes that watch his every move.