In Anne Perry’s The
Scroll, the book that sets the entire plot in motion is the titular scroll.
It all starts with Monty Danforth. He’s an employee at a used bookstore, and
the owner just bought a large crate of books from an estate auction. At the
bottom of the crate lies an ancient scroll, not included among the catalogue of
items. Intrigued, Monty takes a closer look: it looks like an old scroll, and
the language is unfamiliar. Monty decides to photocopy the scroll in order to
get a translation done, but the photocopier refuses to do its job—although it scans
other documents just fine. So he tries to take a picture… and the scroll shows
up clearly on the picture, but the text has vanished.
