There are almost two plot lines in the book; first the murder and second the research and discovery of the facts regarding the murder. While the murder is well plotted, that plot gets lost in the ponderous writing and the lengthy narration of both the story leading up to the murder and the story of it's research. There is an overwhelming use of complex language that slows the reading and the writing is so in-depth that on numerous occasions I just wanted to "get on with it."

The more sexually graphic content seemed unnecessary in a book purported to be a mystery novel. It was more like an attempt at mild erotica wrapped up in a complex mystery story. I found it ponderous, and difficult to maintain my interest. That is unfortunate because the basic plot holds great potential with an excellent twist and reveal that could be entertaining to a straight mystery reader.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy for review.

Emily Snow is a project archivist sent to San Diego's fictional Regents University to work on the papers of Raymond West, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and professor at the university. His heiress wife, Elizabeth is donating $25 million dollars to the library as well as Raymond's papers.
Emily's predecessor, Nadia Fontaine drowned in a supposed accident after being fired for getting too close to her subject. However, she had hidden secrets and she leaves clues for the current archivist.
Emily is trying to do her job but keeps finding inconsistencies and she is drawn into Nadia & Raymond's story which turns out to be dangerous for her. It could jeopardize her job, her reputation, her sanity & even her life. Emily can't quit however until she finds out the truth.
The first part of the book was difficult to get through, The author is very descriptive and uses some serious vocabulary which interrupts the flow of the story. Once you get used to that however, the story is intriguing.

I tried. I wanted to like this book but I just couldn't and gave up about a third of the way in. It's pompous and over-written. And a prime example of why some men should not write female characters.

👩 Emily Snow is an archivist and has been transferred from Texas to California to archive the works of Author Raymond West. She discovers quickly that her predecessor, Nadia Fontaine, had an affair with Raymond West. They also wrote a book together: The Archivist. Can this be the reason why Nadia Fontaine drowned in a very suspicious surfing accident?

❤️ I liked:⁠
👩 Emily. She was a really interesting character with a bit of an academic ego, and she knew how to stand up for herself. Because of her Misophonia (sensitivity to certain sounds), she was probably underestimated by the other characters.
🔍 The mystery. The character of Nadia, her relationship with the writer and her mysterious death was intriguing. I found this book an engaging twist on the murder mystery genre.

🤔 I wasn't so sure about:⁠
📚 It's long and slow. This book is 700 pages, and some chapters are a bit dragged out. Also, the descriptions were full - and I mean very full - of details, and some of the vocabulary was a bit awkward. I have to admit I went quite fast through some of the chapters.

⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 The plot is interesting, the characters definitely different. Don't pick it up if you are looking for a relaxing and easy-to-read book because it's not! Thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

SO MANY ISSUES WITH THIS BOOK!!!

Let's get started:

This book was 700 pages and would have been better at about 250. This book is evidence that the author has no idea how to write a book with female protagonists; main character was written and portrayed as young but to find out she is an aspiring young journalist.... SMH. She is investing a surf accident at prestigious college where everyone has an opinion or some people do not want to talk about it.

As this author was continuing this painfully long, unbelievable mess of a story; it is clear the author pulled out a thesaurus. Seriously such a turnoff and distracting from the story.

Honestly? This was a DNF at about page 275 and thank goodness it is a Netgalley book. The actual hardcover when it comes out, for the poor fool who buys this, would have better use for it is a coaster or a step stool. Can I have the days I spent reading back, please?

Cannot recommend. Hated it.

Thanks to Netgalley, Rex Pickett and Blackstone Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 11/9/21

I went into The Archivist, with some reservations. Sometimes I like to step out of my comfort zone and try my hand at something new. I did enjoy this book but there were definitely things I could have lived without.

Some chapters were a bit dragged out. Also, some of the vocabulary was a bit awkward and led to the flow being a bit choppy.

The plot and premise were well done, and the cover is beautiful. I think there is a specific audience that would find this book enjoyable.

Emily Snow, an archivist of some repute, is hired to replace her predecessor, Nadia Fontaine, who died suddenly. Nadia was having an illicit and passionate affair with Raymond West, the writer whose works she was cataloguing. In contention for a Nobel, his collection has taken on a new significance; his wife Elizabeth’s promised endowment of $25 million dollars makes him a definite favorite son of Regents University. Emily is phobic; she has anxiety and is socially awkward at times. Focused and thorough, she finds private correspondence and other information about Nadia and Raymond that would tarnish their reputations and may damage the university’s future. Unknown to all, they have written a book together. Emily becomes obsessed with the couple and her behavior turns erratic. Despite advice to stop prying, she works doggedly to find the answer to the haunting question: Who killed Nadia? Rex Pickett’s storyline intrigues me but the length of this novel is a major weakness. Its wordiness is distracting; I find it difficult to retain interest in solving the mystery.

Thank you to Rex Pickett, Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/the-archivist/

The Archivist is one of those novels that is so original and unique, that it is hard to put down. Any historian, librarian, or book lover will be pulled in from the first page. Rex Pickett has written a gorgeous tale, set in La Jolla, California, a sunny and beautiful locale in direct contrast to the very dark subject matter.

Emily Snow is the archivist and has been transferred from her usual assignment at Henry Ransom in Austin, Texas to the beautiful locale of La Jolla, California to archive the works of Author Raymond West at Regents, a prestigious university. Emily is quirky and a misanthropist. She also has Misophonia, which is a diagnosis of someone who becomes outraged at small noises, such as a clock ticking or the hum of an air conditioner. She discovers quickly that her predecessor, Nadia Fontaine, has passed away under suspicious circumstances. In fact, the project is not complete because she drowned in a “surfing accident.” As Emily digs deeper, she discovers an affair between Raymond West and Nadia in addition to a book they wrote together, aptly named The Archivist. A book that may have resulted in Nadia’s murder.

Emily is only one of the many interesting characters Rex Pickett has created in this novel. I really enjoyed her sarcasm and elitist attitude. She was very good at standing up for herself and seemingly afraid of no one. Her misophonia is a genuine issue in the book and her subsequent rage at small noises was fascinating to read about. Raymond West is also compelling as the very secretive and entirely broken author and professor, who longs for Nadia and feels consuming guilt for her death. Joel is Emily’s coworker in special collections, an unambitious surfer and pot smoker, who was deeply in love with Nadia but never told her. Helena is the director of the Special Collections section of the library where the archive is located. A woman who has spent 35 years working towards the goal of a brand new library section on the 8th floor and will stop at nothing to ensure it happens. Elizabeth West, the wealthy scion and mayoral candidate married to Raymond, will donate 25 million to ensure her best friend’s dream of a new section of the library.

A fair warning that The Archivist is over 700 pages though it does not feel that long to the reader. There are some parts that become bogged down in minutia and academic wordage but Rex Pickett has described in great detail the world of archivists and the authors they process. There is some grandiosity typical in the world of academia but it is not overdone. His descriptions of the architecture of the library and the small town of La Jolla are incredible with detail. This all-consuming novel was a fascinating delve into the dark side of academia.

This book was an interesting twist on the murder mystery genre. Having an archivist as the heroine was very intriguing- making it plausible that she was skilled at research and thus could uncover lots of clues. My only issue was that it was SLOW. iIt took almost the entire book to get to the exciting part where the protagonist puts the clues together. Then it just ends. There were many descriptions of the weather, people’s appearances, etc. that seemed almost too much. The emails between the lovers were also beautifully written, but repetitive. Moving between the emails and the autobiography was especially repetitive.

I am glad I read this. However, it took forever (and I am a fast reader.)

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't finish it. I couldn't figure out exactly how I felt about it. I work in a HS library so I was intrigued by the abundance of SAT words, but given the amount of promiscuity and X-rated passages in the book, I couldn't recommend it for our library. I am far from a prude but I was turned off by those passages and frankly tired of having to use the dictionary on my Kindle to look up so many words.

I got about half way into this 700 page book when I decided it just wasn't worth it to finish. Good concept, that's about the best I can say.

The Archivist features an original concept so unique that any bibliophile, historian, and aficionado of the arts cannot help but be drawn to it. Rex Pickett crafts a tale of intrigue, set in a locale that could, by many, be seen as the antithesis of the concept - a library. But as anyone with a library card knows, those august walls hold a plethora of adventures and mysteries just waiting to be discovered.
In the process of telling his tale, Pickett aptly illustrates, in great detail, the world of archivists working in a prestigious library, and of the authors whose works grace the shelves. The elitisms, pomposity, and sense of superiority exhibited by the characters who make up his academia comes through in deafening detail. Why would such learned and intelligent characters deign to use a widely understood yet still multi-syllabic word when an ostentatious, archaic, and obscure one will display one's superiority? Such words force readers to scramble for a dictionary every few paragraphs, forced to recognize their own failings in the areas of vocabulary. After all, isn't it the responsibility of the higher educated to elucidate those below them? This tendency among academia is well ensconced in these pages, setting the tone for the book.
Sadly, in embracing his academics with a superior state of being, Pickett gets bogged down in minutia that does little to nothing to advance either plot or character development. This comes across as a penchant for verbosity just for the sake of self congratulation.
In fact, the minutia merely leaves the reader wondering when the story is going to actually begin, or continue, depending on what point she is in the ingestion of the fare Pickett has offered. The first five chapters are plodding and pedantic, ostensibly for the sake of ART, and the reader is simply tempted to skip entire sections or, heavens forbid, give up on the book altogether.
In fact, the book could easily lose at least a third of its prodigious girth without any ill effects. Perhaps even half of its word count. It would definitely be more enjoyable.
The story, when it finally finds its legs, is actually a gripping one. Despite its painfully long descriptions and cringe worthy depictions of feminine sexuality, once the plot gets moving, if you can wade through the flotsam and jetsam, it is spell binding in its intricacies and suspenseful in its development.
Ironically, the conclusion happens so comparatively quickly, the reader finishes the book wondering that it has actually concluded. It's almost as if the writer has exhausted himself and rushed the ending. Or perhaps I missed a key detail in the sections that I merely scanned for key words in order to get to the sections in which something Happened!
The Archivist holds so much potential. And somewhere, mired in the minutia that makes little difference to anything but the reader's desire to continue, if you search, it lives up to that potential.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I tried to get into this, especially as someone who has dear archivist friends, but could not get into the story or get over the unnecessarily dense writing style. I stopped reading after about 10 percent of the book.

As an archivist myself, I was really excited to give this one a try. Unfortunately, it took me only a few pages to realize that this book wasn't going to work for me. The writing was just so bad. It was somehow both extremely amateur and also extremely pretentious, like it was written by a high school or college student trying to prove how smart they are. Also, the main character is a young woman and in the bit that I read, I could tell this would fall into the oft-discussed "why men shouldn't write women characters," category. It wasn't as blatant as some I've seen, but it still was pretty bad. I'm sorry to say, this isn't one I'll be recommending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy.

I could not put this book down. It was filled with moral dilemmas. If you discover a secret, do you keep it to yourself and try to live with it or tell and destroy so many lives. The Archivist was brave and reckless. You will enjoy it until the very end.

The Archivist by Rex Pickett, a good book, simply not for me. It reads well and I think others will enjoy it, just didn't work for me. Thank you for giving me a chance with this book .

I love similes -- enough to have edited a Similes Dictionary which has enjoyed publication in several formats. I also enjoyed the fillmed adaptation of this author's previous book. However, I found his writing off-putting and pretentious. It felt padded and show-off-ish and had me silently nudging the author to get to his story and stop showing off his word-smithing.

An editor with a blue pencil handy might have helped this to live up to its promise.

Emily the archivist is a plucky loner who has landed a gig she's really excited about: archiving for Raymond West, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and potential Nobel winner. The project is undone because the previous archivist, Nadia, drowned in a "surfing accident." Now Regent's University has everything to lose if the archive isn't finished on time for its unveiling at a gala with a $25 million donation attached. As Emily digs into the project, navigating the strange politics of the archives team and West's heiress wife, missing items send her on a deeper search that reveals an illicit affair between Nadia and West. With information that could scandalize West's career, ruin his wife's reputation, and bring Regent's to its knees, Emily has to wonder how accidental Nadia's death really was.

I was very excited by the premise of this book, but three enduring aspects of the prose made it extremely difficult to get through. First, it's incredibly detailed, including detailing everything the protagonist wears and eats, which I don't ever feel is germane to the plot unless we're reading a culinary murder or a sartorial serial killer case. The details often killed the tension and made it hard to track the main story line. As the band Cake puts it, "The ornaments are pretty, but they're pulling down the branches of the tree." (The culinary coverage also did not work for me in <i>A Discovery of Witches</i> by Deborah Harkness, but in that case the pacing made up for all the food descriptions, which I think everyone but me loved.)

Second, there are redundancies throughout the text that don't feel like they are building, but just restating a story element in different words, so I felt like I was being beaten with the information instead of moved along by it. The two main examples are Helena's jealousy of Elizabeth as it relates to Helena's limited earning potential, and the way Emily tries to hold herself at arms' length when it comes to men.

And third, there are various transitions between places that are included that aren't necessary, in my opinion. I don't need a detailed account of Emily and Helena leaving the building to go to Helena's car, for example - to me these kinds of scenes (eating, driving, walking) can play well on screen and can even say something within the story (Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" with all the shots spent on characters walking to doors). That just didn't feel like the case here.

I might have loved this book if it didn't feel bloated by those three issues. I think it could have been much shorter and would be a much stronger work for the cutting. If it's shorter when it comes out, I would definitely pick it up again, if only out of curiosity.

I didn't mind having to use the dictionary so often (some SAT words I'd forgotten, others I'd never encountered) but it did take me out of the story and I was SO GLAD I was reading on my iPad so I could just tap a word to pull it up. The vocabulary felt appropriate given who the characters are.

On the plus side, I thought Emily was a really interesting character. I kind of loved rolling my eyes at her academic ego, and I liked it whenever she stood up for herself. I was also super-intrigued by her sensitivity to certain sounds and the suggestion that she could probably be homicidal if provoked with the right sounds under the right circumstances. While West's archives were a "Pandora's Box," Emily felt like one, too. So I liked how she was underestimated by the other characters. And the late Nadia was sufficiently mysterious to keep me curious.

Lastly, I did enjoy the artful descriptions of the fires in California, which lent an ominous air to the whole atmosphere of the story, and the descriptions of the buildings also gave the story an edge.

A big thank-you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC to me in exchange for an honest review.

Although the premise of the book, an archivist takes up the curation of an author’s collection after the untimely death of her predecessor, is appealing, I found it extremely difficult to read. The writing was so overblown and verbose that I think the author must have been trying to use every word in his vocabulary!
I was so exhausted by the prose that the final revelations were anticlimactic.
Truly a slog to get through.

A Romance Mystery Thiller that was a bit of a slog for to get through. I think there were definitely some moments of merit, and the mystery itself is great. But overall, it was too verbose and over-analytical for me. I would recommend it those who enjoy an ultra-detailed slow burn novel. However, for me it was not a novel that kept me coming back for more.

Being an archivist myself, I REALLY wanted to love this book. It's always fun to see someone else's perspective of what I do for a living. And while it was interesting to see how someone else would process a large and complicated collection, I had a hard time getting into this book. To the point where after I got halfway through and still was struggling and forcing myself to continue I finally just threw in the towel and didn't finish it. I may still try to finish it, but as of right now, it's done.

So what went wrong for me: I think the biggest problem I had with this book was the dragging out of details and the VERY slow action in the story. I'm halfway through and I feel like Emily hasn't made a dent in the collection. And while she's slowly learning what happened to Nadia (and by slowly I mean literally reading her life story and emails....this could have been summed up in parts and used the emails more sparingly to have more of an impact), it doesn't feel like she's doing too much to figure out exactly what happened to her and why everyone is so freaked out about mentioning her.

I think this story has potential, but the pace needs to pick WAY up and not be so bogged down in emails and Nadia's story. I get that it's important to the plot, but it really could have been condensed more to move the plot along. I didn't finish, so maybe it picks up later (but I made it halfway though - in my world, if a book hasn't picked up by the halfway point and I'm still somewhat bored, it probably won't get any better).

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to review this ARC!