Yet as I said at the start, this is a long and pointless story, with no resolution yet.

I've now ordered a copy from eBay and wait tensely to see if that's finally going to arrive.

And what, if anything, will I find in Book 34 that *they* don't want me to see...

Once again, the book was scrubbed from their system, no longer listed.

Hence my conclusion that this particular book is cursed.

It doesn't just keep disappearing on me, it keeps disappearing from the internet whenever I nail it down.

But a few days passed without being told it was out for delivery. Usually they send stuff straight away.

Eventually, I logged in to check, and found the order listed as 'refunded'. I'd received no notification about this, it just said 'unfulfilled' and I checked to find I had indeed been refunded.

Cutting my losses, I went ahead and bought Book 34 myself, from my trusted World of Books (also, incidentally, based here in Worthing, don't you know).

I've bought countless books from them never with a problem, and was happy to see they had it, as they only have a few from the series at any time.

One was then reported missing, which was even odder considering the book was not on the system before, while the other was listed as On Order. So they'd gone from not having it, to having one, to not having two. All at the time my own library lost theirs.

I lost patience waiting for the new copy.

It was an odd coincidence (had the missing copy from Worthing made it to the next county?!) but I considered myself lucky and put in the reservation.

Except time passed with no sign of the book moving, and I kept checking until things got stranger. It was updated to show they had two copies now.

As soon as I saw the Book 34 entry disappear in Worthing, I checked Brighton, and lo, discovered they had a copy of that exact book. In their own system, not SELMS.

Strange – because they only had one or two other books in the series, and they surely hadn't had 34 when I checked before.

Well fine, I guessed that's just a missing copy and they've skipped ahead to deleting it from the system. I managed to get one book from Brighton and another I went and ordered.

But with Book 34, things got more unusual...

I'd log into the system to check, and instead of seeing a book pending, or in transit, or, God forbid, 'Missing Copy', what I discovered was an 'unlisted item'.

The reservation was blank and all record of the book entry was gone. No explanation, just a scrubbing of the book from ever existing.

But around Book 32, things were set to get easier, as most of the last dozen or more books were (supposedly) available via West Sussex, on my doorstep.

Except at my first batch of reservations via Worthing, something went awry – I requested 3 books and they started to disappear.

Living close to Brighton, I have the full power of the West Sussex and Brighton's library service, and Brighton's access to the entire SELMS catalogue, a system that spreads all across South East England.

Mostly, I've been using SELMS, meaning regular trips to Brighton, and a little more expense.

Thanks Nils! Yeah not sure it'd be too nice to visit...