Tag Archive for: mystery fiction

Cold Weather Reads

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The snow and cold we had a few weeks ago was a perfect excuse (if you needed one) to curl up with a few good books.

One of the first I read, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, was recommended by a friend and long-time library user. The author, Walter Isaacson, takes you on an in depth dive into a sentence most, if not all, of us recognize immediately: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This crucial sentence in the Declaration of Independence penned by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams was the premise on which the United States was formed. Isaacson dissects it almost word by word, giving the beliefs and influences that each man brought to the crafting of this foundational sentence.

This is a small book, only 80 pages, with almost half it being supporting texts and the full Declaration of Independence. It won’t take you long to read but will give you a lot to think about, especially as we celebrate 250 years as a nation.

After my sojourn into seriousness, I moved onto a more light-hearted read, Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds. All of the other Allison Brennan books I’ve read have been thrillers or romantic suspense with the emphasis on suspense. This one is a cozy mystery taking place on a beautiful Caribbean island.

Mia Crawford works as a financial planner and is being offered a partnership in the firm of McCann & Cohn. But first she is being sent on a non-negotiable vacation to celebrate her five year anniversary. St. Clair is a secluded resort island and the only thing that will get Mia through her forced vacation is books. Well, books and maybe meeting an eligible man for a holiday fling.

Having finished her travel read, her first stop on the island is the gift shop to stock up. The only book that catches her eye is on the free table containing books left behind by guests. With book in hand she is ready to start her vacation.

As she meets her fellow guests, a lot of the talk is about a missing guest, Diana Harden. Word is Diana took the ferry to St. John and never returned. Mia loves a mystery so she takes every opportunity to learn as much as she can about the missing woman.

But she can’t snoop all the time so some beach time with her book is a perfect way to relax. She is enjoying the story until she finds that the previous owner defaced the book. They wrote in the margins and underlined and circled words throughout. Mia is outraged but also intrigued.

When Diana’s body washes ashore, Mia figures out that the book she has may have belonged to her. What was Diana doing that got her killed and what do all the numbers and marked words mean?

Mia now has a mystery to solve and a holiday fling to have and only 7 days to accomplish both.

While this stand-alone novel came out late last year, Brennan’s seventh book in the Quinn & Costa suspense series was just released.
In Make It Out Alive, the FBI Mobile Response Team is called in to catch a serial killer praying on married couples. All the women have a similar look which Kara matches. So she & Matt Costa go undercover as a married couple and soon lure the killer, Garrett Reid, out. Job completed the team heads back home but Kara and Matt don’t make it.

The team soon finds evidence that their teammates were drugged and abducted. Was the profile wrong? Did Reid have an accomplice? The unit pulls out all the stops to try to find them but Matt and Kara may have to find a way to save themselves.

Trapped in an abandoned booby-trapped factory with no food or water time is running out. Told from the three perspectives of killer, law enforcement, and victim this story is hard to put down.

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Reviews by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

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Fall Reads

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Ahh, fall. The weather is crisp, the leaves are falling, the boots are out, everything is pumpkin flavored, and the jack-o’-lanterns are glowing. And for readers, the book releases and fall themed reading lists are aplenty. As one of fall’s biggest fans I can’t help but look at a fall curated reading list and pick out a book or two to fit the season. I’ve already been enjoying reading with the season and have listed some of my recent fall reads. I’ve placed them in a range from cozy fall mystery to hair-raising horror.

Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young

I’ve read all of Young’s young adult novels and this was the first adult novel of hers I’ve read. Set on a fictional Pacific Northwest island, the atmosphere of Spells for Forgetting will shove fall down your throat (in the best way). The island is foggy, small-town, and forested, its community centered around the apple orchard on the island. There’s also an apothecary shop, a tea shop, and the women of the island often possess magic (what’s the word I’m looking for….oh right, FALL). Main character Emery Blackwood lost her best friend Lily in a mysterious murder 14 years ago, and although never proven, the town blames August Salt, friend to Lily and boyfriend to Emery. August left the island soon after Lily’s death, leaving Emery behind and broken-hearted in more ways than one. Now August has returned to the island for the first time since Lily’s murder, awaking unsolved questions and stirring up new ones, as well as stirring up feelings Emery has tried to bury deep. I enjoyed Young’s character development in this novel, and I liked the magical elements. The island itself felt like a character and the atmospheric setting of it all was itself magical. I would suggest this fall read for cozy mystery readers that enjoy a fantasy and romance twist.

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Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma

I enjoy a good dark academia read in the fall. Add in vampires, revenge, misunderstood villains, and romance, and I’ve got my bookmark ready. We meet the main character Kidan, an orphan, after her sister has been taken by a vampire while Kidan was not there to protect her. Kidan’s grief and rage over her missing sister fuel this novel; it leaps off the page, it feels real, and the unapologetic feminine rage was something I loved about this novel. To find and save her sister Kidan turns into a version of herself that becomes quite monstrous. Following her only clue, a name, Kidan enrolls in an elite university populated by humans and vampires and must live with the very vampire she is looking for: Susenyos. Tensions (and violence) are through the roof, but Kidan cannot take revenge against Susenyos without jeopardizing information about her sister. Kidan is singular in her goals, infiltrating an arcane society to find answers, yet Susenyos is complex and perhaps more than he seems. This novel is Girma’s debut. An Ethiopian author, Girma’s passion for West African myths and culture is a recurring aspect of the novel. I think this is a different take on the vampire dark academia novel, with an interesting vampire political system. This is a good fall read to sink your teeth into if you’re a dark academia fantasy reader.

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My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

Last on my list is my favorite horror novel I’ve read so far this year. Set in the early 1950s this novel jumps between a psychiatrist’s session notes with patient Roos and flashbacks of Roos’s story. Roos’s story begins living with her mother and acting as the medium for seances. Some of the things Roos does are for show, like when her mother forces her to squeeze under the floorboards and pull ropes attached to objects in the room. But Roos isn’t all show. She has a spirit companion only she can see: Ruth. Ruth came to Roos under the floorboards one day and hasn’t left her side since. She protects Roos and is her only friend, and when Roos allows it, Ruth possesses her. After they receive new patron Agnes to their seances, who is trying to communicate with her recently deceased husband, Roos is sold by her mother to live with Agnes in one of the most gothic houses you can imagine. It’s eerie and dilapidated with odd sounds at night, and is home to Agnes’s sister-in-law, who is dying from tuberculosis. Roos and Agnes begin to form a bond that surpasses friendship, and secrets come out and events begin to unfold that had me slightly nervous to listen to the audiobook at night. Drenched in the macabre, van Veen references H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe as some of her inspirations, and that really comes through in this novel. I really enjoyed the shocking twists and turns, and van Veen’s writing was so compelling and fitting for the story. You might consult the content warnings on this one. My Darling Dreadful Thing is perfect for readers that enjoy gothic horror with sapphic romance. 

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The Word is Murder: A Novel (A Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery, 1) by Anthony Horowitz

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New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz takes a crack at writing a modern-day classic crime novel. In this series he casts himself as Dr. Watson to disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne’s Sherlock Holmes.  It is an intriguing premise that allows the author of the book to be one of the main characters.  At first I was not sure how I felt about it, but I ended up really liking it, and  I had no idea who the killer was until the big reveal at the end. 

Book one features a mystery that revolves around a woman who visits a London funeral parlor on a bright spring morning, to plan her own service, and then six hours later she is found strangled in her home. 

Daniel Hawthorne, former police detective turned consultant, is called in by the police to help solve the case; and while he’s sharp and intelligent, he is not very likeable. So when Hawthorne first asks celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz to write a book about him and the case, Horowitz is not sure it is a winning idea. He is a bit hard up for material though, so decides to partner with Hawthorne and reserve judgement about how likely a book is until later. However, as the case unfolds, Horowitz gets sucked into the case and starts to see the potential in writing a book.  So much so that he finds himself trying to solve the murder himself because Hawthorne is very secretive and a mystery himself.

This mystery offering by Horowitz is intriguing and will keep most readers guessing up until the end. The characters are well drawn, with Hawthorne stealing the show. 

It is interesting that Horowitz is writing about himself, as a writer, and includes insight into his professional life. This includes what has worked well for him–his Alex Rider series–but also where he has had challenges.  He never takes himself too seriously and this behind the scenes style is unusual, but effective. I just finished the third book in this series and enjoyed the second and third, just as much as the first, maybe more because I already knew the characters and the story background so it took me less time to understand all the relationships.  

Review written by: Jeana Gockley, Joplin Public Library Director

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The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11pm tonight. But our narrator does not know that yet. In fact, he does not know anything, including his own name.

Minutes ago, he woke up in the woods yelling the name Anna, heard a scream that was abruptly cut off, and was sent back to a crumbling manor house by a mysterious stranger – probably a murderer if the scream is any indication.

No one at Blackheath Manor seems particularly worried about the potential murder in the woods. One of the men takes our narrator up to his room, trying to help with his memory loss. The narrator’s name is Sebastian Bell, he is a doctor. He is at Blackheath to attend a masquerade ball that evening in honor of Evelyn Hardcastle’s return from Paris.

Bell continues to have strange interactions all day with people who seem to know him – including one interaction with a man in a plague doctor’s mask who delivers cryptic warnings and once with Evelyn Hardcastle herself.

Evelyn makes an immediate impression on Bell; she is one of the few people willing to help him investigate the scream he heard in the woods. Everyone else in the house has dismissed his concerns, for the most part because no one seems to know an Anna.

Late in the evening, Sebastian Bell returns to his bedroom to find a dead rabbit and a note signed by The Footman, a murderer that our narrator has been warned to look out for. Bell faints on the spot. When he regains consciousness, our narrator is in the body of Blackheath’s butler and back at the beginning of that same day.

Each time our narrator wakes up, he does so in a new body. He will have the chance to live through this day eight different times, through the eyes of eight different people. At 11pm, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered. He will witness her death multiple times, from multiple perspectives.

Our narrator has been placed in a time loop to solve her murder, but he is not the only one – there are two other people trying to find the answer to this mystery, and only one of them will be allowed to leave once it is solved.

THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE is a unique mystery. The narrator has the opportunity to gain first-hand experience from eight different witnesses to the crime. He gains more information each time he inhabits someone new, sometimes interacting with himself in a different body.

As he races to solve Evelyn’s murder, the narrator gains more insight into why he is here in the first place. As the man in the plague doctor mask tells him, this is not the first time he has experienced these eight days. He will keep living this day through these eight people until he – or one of his rivals – solves the murder.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

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Ganymedes Piscero is in the last place he would ever want to be: on a magical ship traveling toward the most magical place on the continent, surrounded by the heirs to the provinces of Concordia – who all have magical gifts, and who all hate him.

Ganymedes – he prefers Dee, actually – is also the heir to a province: Fish Province. They govern the ocean-side beaches and have a duty to provide fish for the empire. As the heir of Fish Province, Dee should also have a Blessing, but one has never manifested for him.

Dee’s father has forced him to pretend to have a Blessing, to cover up his own infidelity. Luckily for him, no one is open about their gifts. Most of the twelve heirs refuse to share them, unless they are impossible to hide. The heir of Ox Province has the ability to breathe fire and a hot temper to match.

This pilgrimage was organized to celebrate the emergence of the twelfth heir: a tiny six-year-old from Grasshopper Province who recently manifested her Blessing. With the completion of this new generation of leaders, it is time for them all to journey to the mountain where the first Blessings were bestowed.

It is a twelve-day journey, but on the first night, Eudora – heir to Dragon Province and the Empire itself – is murdered.

As the bodies of the other Blessed begin to pile up, Dee, Grasshopper, and Wyatt of Bear Province team up to uncover the killer.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED by Frances White is a magical locked-room mystery. The Blessed are isolated from the rest of the world while they are onboard this vessel, but they are far from helpless.

Apart from Grasshopper, they have all known each other for a number of years. They have had time to form alliances and enforce the provincial hierarchy. And with so few of their powers known, it will be difficult to determine who is capable of hiding a murder.

Despite spending the entire novel on the boat, readers are able to get a good sense of the world. Each of the provinces of Concordia has its own terrain and culture, and the Blessed from each province has been shaped by their region.

White does an excellent job writing characters. Each of the twelve has their own unique voice and perspective. As Dee travels around the ship, trying to solve the murders, we get to experience each of them in their own environments. Dee’s voice is able to bring a lot of humor to the book, even in the face of mortal peril.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED works well as both a fantasy book and a mystery. When I read mystery fiction, I like it to be slightly unpredictable while also feeling solvable. Like I could have figured it out, given enough time. This book threads that needle for me. I had some suspicions that turned out to be accurate and there were also surprises waiting for me at the end.

 

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Fields by Erin Young

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Robyn Young writes historical fiction in her home country of England. Under the pseudonym Erin Young, she has crossed the pond, at least in print, and penned her first thriller. Set in Waterloo, Iowa and the surrounding farm country, The Fields is a thriller that makes a statement on big agriculture and family farms.

It opens with Chloe Miller running for her life in a cornfield. When a drone approaches she curls as close to the corn stalks as possible hoping to hide from her pursuer. Days later her body is discovered by a co-op farmer surveying the crop.

From the wounds on the body it is obvious that this is a murder, making it Sergeant Riley Fisher’s first big case as head of the Investigations Division of the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department. The pressure is intense as the sheriff wants a quick resolution, the men who wanted the promotion she got are waiting for her to fail, and the victim was a childhood friend. A friend from a time that Riley desperately wishes she could forget.

Chloe was married to James who is a researcher for GFT, a corn breeding company. They live in an affluent part of town so how did Chloe end up in the field and where is her car? James immediately becomes a suspect as he never reported his wife as missing.

Her team starts building a case, collecting evidence and conducting interviews. Then another body is found. This victim was strangled but had some of the same wounds found on Chloe. Nicole King was killed in an old meat-packing plant and evidence points to someone camping in the plant. Besides Nicole’s purse and a backpack there are lots of pill bottles from a local pharmacy. The evidence leads to a displaced veteran, George Anderson. But Anderson seems to have disappeared along with others who have been living on the streets.

The pharmacist identifies the drug as Fenozen which at least one of his former employees had been stealing. One of the suspected thieves is Sarah Foster. Sarah is known to the department because her daughter, Gracie, has been missing for weeks and believed to be a runaway.

Despite the wounds the two victims don’t have anything in common so James Miller is still Riley’s number one suspect in Chloe’s death. First the sheriff and then the governor warns her to leave James alone. Riley’s father worked for the governor in the past so he knows her but why is he steering her away from Miller?

Then Gracie is found in the river with similar wounds to the other two victims. Black Hawk County now has the requisite three bodies to think they have a serial killer. But the only thing tying the victims together is the strange wounds. The cause of death is different for each victim and they have nothing in common except their gender.

Is there one murderer, two or even three? When the FBI comes in to assist, Riley knows she has to solve the case quickly or lose it. But how do you find such an unpredictable killer or killers?

There is a lot going on in this novel. Riley has the pressures of her job and uneasy relationships with some of her colleagues plus the past trauma this case stirs up. Then there is her substance abusing brother, his fourteen year old daughter and her grandfather dying from dementia. Add in the complexities of the case along with some political intrigue and eco-terrorists and it‘s hard to keep everyone straight. I found myself stopping a time or two so I could remember where the character fit in.

Most of the story is in the third person but Riley speaks in her own voice occasionally and there are a couple of chapters from an unnamed character giving you a glimpse of someone spiraling out of control. Is this the killer or a potential victim?

I like well-developed characters and Riley fits the bill. Once all the different plot lines were in place the novel rushed to an action-packed ending. I will give you fair warning, the author doesn’t shy away from gory descriptions and there is a horror element I didn’t expect.

This is the first book featuring Riley Fisher. A second book, Original Sins, was released in March. If you like Karin Slaughter’s novels or enjoyed The Killing Hills by Offutt or Highway by C.J. Box, I recommend you give this title a try.

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Review written by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

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Mallory Viridian spends her life keeping people at arms distance, trying to keep them alive. Death has  followed her for as long as she can remember.

When she was very young, her mother died. Then one of her teachers was murdered, followed by her guidance counselor. Just before she dropped out of college, an annoying classmate and a room service attendant were both killed during a class trip – in two unrelated murders. The final straw came when the guest of honor was murdered at a birthday party Mallory had been forced to attend.

After that, she was done with humans. Thankfully, alien life had just made first contact. Mallory made her case and was granted sanctuary aboard a sentient space station called Eternity.

Life aboard Eternity isn’t always easy. The station is outfitted to care for a variety of alien lifeforms, from the giant rock people called the Gneiss to the ever-present blue and silver wasps of the Sundry hive mind.

With only three humans on board, the station has more pressing matters to deal with than catering specifically to their needs. Mallory has been left to find out which of the alien foods her body is capable of digesting – including a semi-molten liquid rock that could conceivably be called “coffee.”

Her only remaining human contacts are Adrian, the self-important Ambassador of Earth, and Xan, a fellow sanctuary-seeker/stowaway.

Life aboard Eternity has been pleasantly murder-free, but Mallory has just gotten word that everything is about to change. An Earth shuttle is headed to Eternity, and with those human passengers will come a murder. Mallory is certain.

Mallory has a sixth sense for impending death; first she begins to notice unusual coincidences. At the birthday-party-turned-crime-scene, she was almost guaranteed to only know the person who brought her. Instead she finds Xan.

The two had been friends in college, before she dropped out to avoid more murder and he dropped out to join the military. Seeing him out of the blue is not a good sign. Sure enough, after reconnecting with her old friend for a few minutes, the party-goers’ game of Werewolf turns into an actual murder.

With the certainty of this experience, Mallory knows that more humans on Eternity will mean another death. And when her premonition turns out to be correct, the murder ripples out through the station – and no one on Eternity will be safe.

STATION ETERNITY by Mur Lafferty is a well-plotted murder mystery encased in a science fiction shell.

It takes place in the near-future, which helps make the world feel familiar. Human technology and motivations have not changed much in Mallory’s time and it is easy to understand the distrust some humans have for their new galactic neighbors.

The book can occasionally seem choppy, cutting back and forth between Mallory’s present and quick vignettes to the other murders she has solved. These vignettes do not always tell the whole story. Mallory reserves the right to skip details and bring the murders up again before the reader gets the whole picture.

The book’s perspective shifts around between characters, deeply exploring the world that Lafferty has built while still keeping the urgency of the unsolved murder front and center. STATION ETERNITY’s aliens are unusual but relatable, and I would say the same for its humans.

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Review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

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Greetings and welcome to my first book review! While I’ve never written a book review I’ve read many, and likewise read many books. So maybe I’m a natural, right? (It’s okay, you don’t have to answer that, I can feel your encouragement from here.) So here goes: Once There Were Wolves is a book. It’s a good book. I think you should read this book, if you want. If not that’s okay too, I’ll likely never know. So…thank you for your time. 

Only joking, don’t go! Here are truly some things to know about Once There Were Wolves:

What happens to a climate without wolves? What happens when the wolves return? Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy explores these questions through a fictionalized solution to Scotland’s very real lack of wolves; the last wolf in Scotland was killed in 1680, and there are no wild wolves remaining. Enter main character Inti Flynn and her fourteen gray wolves. Inti is equal parts loyal and loner, sharing a deep connection and striking similarity to her wolves. A biologist, Inti is leading a team tasked with reintroducing wolves to the Scotland Highlands in hopes of revitalizing the environment. Without wolves Scotland Highlands’ deer population lingers in areas long enough to reduce the growth of tree shoots, and thus forests. Rewilding these fourteen wolves will help move the deer and subsequently allow regrowth of natural forests. Inti seems perfect for this endeavor as she is passionate about both the wolves and the environment their presence aims to fortify. 

However, the wolves and caring for nature aren’t Inti’s only motivations for moving to Scotland: Inti’s twin sister Aggie is coming too. Inti hopes moving Aggie away from their previous home of Alaska will be good for her twin, who is mentally and physically dependent upon Inti. Through a series of flashbacks between present day, Inti’s childhood, and young adulthood prior to moving to Scotland it’s clear Aggie wasn’t always this way. The balance between past and present throughout the novel reveals the reasoning behind Aggie’s dependency and how it intertwines with Inti’s motivations in Scotland.

Raised by her mother in Australia and her father in British Columbia, Inti was taught to fear human nature by her detective mother and to live among nature by her off-the-grid father. This upbringing is a foundation for Inti’s self-isolating nature, as is Inti’s diagnoses of mirror-touch synesthesia, a rare condition in which those diagnosed feel similar tactile sensations as others. For Inti this happens anytime she sees someone feel something, for example receiving a high-five. Inti is also able to feel things her wolves feel, like salivation when she presents them with food. Inti’s mirror-touch synesthesia is a contributing factor to her relationship with and protectiveness of her wolves, and her distrust of humans.

As one might imagine, Inti’s task of rewilding her wolves is met with adversity from locals, particularly farmers. Inti is not faced with an easy task; in addition to rewilding the wolves she is juggling angry farmers who fear the affect the wolves presence will have on their livestock, her sisters concerning condition, her own self-doubt, her struggles with mirror-touch synesthesia, and her budding feelings for the local sheriff. As if that isn’t enough a farmer is found dead (can’t a girl catch a break). In denial that her wolves could be responsible, Inti starts down a path to clear their name by uncovering the true killer, discovering things she never knew about herself along the way. What results is a rollercoaster conclusion to an already tense story.

There is a lot going on in this book, so staying interested was not a problem for me. At times there was too much going on for my taste, but I think that is somewhat the point: life can be chaotic, just as nature can be. McConaghy’s parallel between human nature and animal nature is wonderfully (if not pointedly) done throughout the novel. I found Inti to be an interesting character, both captivating and frustrating in her steadfastness of taking on everything by herself. Most of the time Inti relates more to her wolves than the humans surrounding her, and the simultaneous danger and beauty in the relationship between nature and humans is both poignant and humbling to read.

This is not McConaghy’s first novel focused upon human impact on the natural environment. McConaghy has also penned Migrations, which likewise follows a female protagonist in a journey of self-discovery through nature. If strong female leads and the importance of the natural world around us are of interest to you McConaghy is an author to explore. 

Note: If you are considering reading Once There Were Wolves I suggest reviewing the content warnings before embarking on your journey with Inti and her wolves.

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Review written by: Sarah Turner-Hill, Adult Programming Coordinator

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

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Nell Young’s whole life is maps, it always has been. Her father is a world-renowned expert in mapmaking and cartography at the New York Public Library, and he raised her to love maps as much as he does.

She followed in his footsteps through college: studying cartography and earning a highly-competitive internship in the NYPL’s Maps Division. All signs pointed to her earning a full position there when she graduated.

Until the Junk Box Incident. Nell and her father had a very public fight over a map and he fired her in front of the entire office. With her reputation as an up-and-coming academic ruined, and all her connections in the field broken by the loss of her father’s support. Nell was sentenced to a maps-adjacent career designing decorative maps for people’s living rooms.

After the fight, Nell wanted nothing more to do with her father. Although he had fostered her love of maps, he was a somewhat inattentive parent. He had done his best as a single father after her mother’s death, but he always felt distant.

Nell stayed away from him, and from the NYPL, for years. But she finds herself back in the library after hearing the news that her father has passed away at his desk. Looking through her father’s papers, Nell is shocked to find the map that she and her father fought about all those years ago – the catalyst of the Junk Box Incident. A nondescript, mass produced gas station map of New York’s highways.

During her internship, Nell discovered the junk box in the storage room of the Maps Division. Inside she had found some very rare and valuable maps, and – inexplicably – the gas station map. When she ran back to the office with her discovery, her father claimed that the maps in the box were fakes and fired her on the spot. What she cannot understand is why he seems to have held onto that worthless gas station map until the day he died.

As she looks into the history of the map, Nell discovers that every other copy has been claimed by a mysterious group called The Cartographers. Whether by purchase or theft, every copy of this map – in museums, libraries, archives, private collections, and antique shops – has disappeared.

Unable to stop digging into a mystery that is quickly taking over her life, Nell begins to chase down the people her father was in contact with before his death – people who turn out to be her parents’ college friends. They give her new insight into her family history and show her the real potential that maps hold, if you know where to look.

THE CARTOGRAPHERS by PENG SHEPHERD hops back and forth between Nell’s story and the first-person recollections of this older group of map enthusiasts. They tell her about events she was too young to remember and the truth behind lies that she has been told to protect her. The reader listens alongside Nell as she hears these stories from her past.

The book itself is a compelling blend of realism and fantasy. While much of the story is designed as a straight-laced mystery, there is magic here. It is a magic that feels almost plausible – and, if you read the author’s note, you will find that it is a magic that is very nearly real.

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