Outside the Monroe County courthouse, early on a Monday at the end of June, there is a conspiracy afoot.

Harper Lee’s literary agent, Andrew Nurnberg, in a sports shirt and pastel slacks, is looking for breakfast, but if you are a newspaper reporter, he doesn’t want your help.

In fact, he doesn’t want to acknowledge that he is Harper Lee’s agent, Andrew Nurnberg.

“What is it you’d like to say to Andrew?” he says, as if Andrew might be somebody else.

Later, Jonathan Burnham, senior vice president and publisher at the Harper imprint, and Michael Morrison, president and publisher of HarperCollins U.S., are both unaccountably shopping for souvenirs in the courthouse gift shop, and are both equally reticent.

“Is this an interview?” answers Burnham to a reporter’s questions. He then excuses himself for a luncheon meeting at the Prop and Gavel. The restaurant, co-owned by Harper Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, is across the street from the courthouse, but it closed last year.

“Don’t knock,” says Burnham.

This skullduggery is not unusual in Monroeville. Nelle Harper Lee, the town’s ubiquitous and invisible celebrity, herself is kept under wraps, living quietly at an assisted living facility where a security guard keeps any but approved visitors away from her door. She is rarely seen out.

Her new book, “Go Set a Watchman,” is also top secret. Set to go on sale July 14, the book will not be delivered to most outlets until July 13, with strict instructions to not open the boxes until the following day.

But on this day both author and book will make a brief appearance.

Burnham, Morrison, Nurnberg, Carter, documentary filmmaker Mary Murphy and Lee’s old New York friend Joy Brown have brought Lee the first copy of her new novel hot off the presses, and they’re celebrating at the restaurant, which Carter has opened just for this private affair.

After a lunch of fried chicken and gumbo, Lee Sentell, Alabama’s director of tourism, has the privilege of driving Ms. Nelle home. He drives very carefully.

It’s a big time for this little town. “To Kill a Mockingbird” put Monroeville on the map, and citizens think the new book will pump up the volume. “Why are you here?” asks Monroe County Heritage Museum director Stephanie Rogers. “Why is the tourism director for the state of Alabama here?” (Answer: the new book.)

Inside the tiny Ol’ Curiosities & Book Shoppe, which is housed in a former residence just off the square, it’s clear that “Watchman” is already drawing visitors. There one can find the LeCroy family from Colleyville, Texas, who were on their way to Destin, Fla., when they detoured off I-65 to visit Monroeville.

Kenneth and Tara, both physicians, read “Mockingbird” out loud to each other while they were dating, and they felt obliged to bring their three children to see the hometown of one of their heroes and to order a copy of her new work.

Store owners Spencer Madrie and his mother Ann Mote have sold more than 7,000 advance copies of “Watchman.” He said a semi-trailer truck will be delivering the books on July 13, in time for a midnight release party.

On release day visitors will follow a new walking tour, featuring landmarks from the both books, and volunteers will read “Watchman” in the old courthouse, now the Monroe County Heritage Museum.

Before Nurnberg leaves town, he sits for a videotaped interview to help Sentell with his publicity efforts. Nurnberg repeats Carter’s account of the discovery of the new manuscript, which Lee wrote before “Mockingbird,” and about which she had purportedly forgotten. Carter has said she found the manuscript last summer, attached to an original copy of “Mockingbird,” stored in a “secure location.”

“This is quite a political book,” says Nurnberg on the tape. “It’s also a funny novel. You open the first page and you know, this is Harper Lee.”