The California Novel No One Can Find

I tell the taxi driver to floor it, the rare-book appraiser’s voice still burning in my ears. “There’s a copy in Mexico,” Rodrigo Agüero had said. His tone was firm, almost smug. Besides, he had specifics. “In the Fondo Reservado,” he added, naming one of the country’s most guarded literary vaults, which are home to treasures like a Mayan codex, letters from conquistadores, and, if his lead was right—a Yellow Bird.