In The Sunken Archive, a coastal city has slowly flooded and its records office now sits under twenty metres of water. A small team of archivists — part librarians, part divers — head down each season to recover what they can before the paper is gone for good. Then they find a box of files that someone very powerful would prefer stayed underwater.
The pleasures
This is a book that knows exactly what it wants to be: an adventure with a librarian's heart. The diving sequences are tense and well-researched, and the author clearly enjoys the details of preservation — how waterlogged paper is frozen, dried and read, and why the order of documents in a box can matter as much as their content.
The central team is likeable without being cosy. Their arguments about what to save when they can't save everything give the story an emotional weight beyond the thriller plot.
The compromises
The conspiracy at the heart of the book resolves a little too neatly, and one or two rescues rely on luck. Readers who prize plausibility above pace may roll their eyes in the final act.
Who it's for
- For: confident readers from about thirteen upwards; adults who enjoy brisk adventure with a bookish streak; anyone who has ever wondered what archivists actually do.
- Not for: readers looking for a slow, literary treatment of climate and loss. The flood is a setting, not a meditation.
- Read-aloud potential: high. Short chapters, strong cliffhangers.
The Hunt verdict
A genuinely fun book that makes record-keeping feel heroic. Hand it to the teenager who says reading is boring, then borrow it back when they've finished.