The Book of Mirrors

December 5, 2016
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. Agent: Marilia Savvides, Peters, Fraser and Dunlop.

December 15, 2016
Forget about it. Chirovici's (Gods, Weapons and Money: The Puzzle of Power, 2014, etc.) elegant murder mystery hinges on the unreliability of memory. When literary agent Peter Katz receives a partial manuscript detailing the events surrounding the brutal unsolved killing of a famous psychology professor some 27 years earlier, he becomes intrigued, smelling true-crime blockbuster potential: the murdered psychologist was known for his work exploring the effects of trauma on memory and was secretly working for a government agency; a brilliant, driven young woman working with the professor lies and manipulates with chilling ease; and sexual jealousy and long-harbored resentments manifest in terrible, unpredictable ways. Unfortunately, the author, a failed writer by the name of Richard Flynn, dies before he can be questioned, and the remainder of his manuscript proves elusive. Katz begins an investigation, pulling cynical investigative journalist John Keller into the fray and inspiring the murder's original investigator, retired police detective Roy Freeman, to finally close the case. But tracking down the other players in the incident leads only to confusing, contradictory testimony. Worse yet, a key suspect suffers from retrograde amnesia, and Freeman himself is suffering through the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Chirovici deftly develops his theme by alternating points of view, juxtaposing excerpts from Flynn's manuscript with the current-day observations of Katz, Keller, and Freeman, gradually assembling the true narrative, mosaiclike, from the disparate strands. The story lacks urgency--the crime in question is decades old--but it nonetheless compels attention, as Chirovici draws his characters well and tantalizes the reader with judiciously timed revelations. A smart, sophisticated murder puzzle sure to please the more literary-minded aficionados of the form.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.