



The Book of Mirrors
A Novel
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
An elegant, page-turning thriller in the vein of Night Film and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, this tautly crafted novel is about stories: the ones we tell, the ones we keep hidden, and the ones that we’ll do anything to ensure they stay buried.
When literary agent Peter Katz receives a partial book submission entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued by its promise and original voice. The author, Richard Flynn, has written a memoir about his time as an English student at Princeton in the late 1980s, documenting his relationship with the protégée of the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. One night just before Christmas 1987, Wieder was brutally murdered in his home. The case was never solved. Now, twenty-five years later, Katz suspects that Richard Flynn is either using his book to confess to the murder, or to finally reveal who committed the violent crime.
But the manuscript ends abruptly—and its author is dying in the hospital with the missing pages nowhere to be found. Hell-bent on getting to the bottom of the story, Katz hires investigative journalist John Keller to research the murder and reconstruct the events for a true crime version of the memoir. Keller tracks down several of the mysterious key players, including retired police detective Roy Freeman, one of the original investigators assigned to the murder case, but he has just been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Inspired by John Keller’s investigation, he decides to try and solve the case once and for all, before he starts losing control of his mind. A trip to the Potosi Correctional Centre in Missouri, several interviews, and some ingenious police work finally lead him to a truth that has been buried for over two decades...or has it?
Stylishly plotted, elegantly written, and packed with thrilling suspense until the final page, The Book of Mirrors is a book within a book like you’ve never read before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in Chirovici's intricately plotted first novel, New York literary agent Peter Katz is intrigued by a manuscript titled The Book of Mirrors submitted by Richard Flynn, a copywriter for a Manhattan ad agency. It chronicles Flynn's time at Princeton when as a senior he fell under the spell of a beautiful graduate student, Laura Baines, and of Joseph Wieder, a famous professor, who was murdered just before Christmas, 1987. Flynn's memoir hints at a solution to the 27-year-old crime, as well as an affair between Baines and Wieder, but ends abruptly before revealing the killer. Was this Flynn's veiled confession? When Katz learns Flynn has died, he hires investigative journalist John Keller to find the missing conclusion. Keller's research leads to retired police detective Roy Freeman, who handled the original case. Recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, Freeman launches his own investigation, believing it's his last chance to do good. Faulty memories, outright lies, and secrets make it hard to know whom to believe. The action builds to a crafty and believable resolution.