This book was absolutely spectacular! Thank you for the opportunity to read and rate it!

The Book of Mirrors is a novel in three parts, revolving around a cold case murder that happened in 1987. Professor Weider, a well-known psychologist, was found beaten to death in his home, with no reliable witnesses. The three men who narrate the respective sections become obsessed with finding a motive for the murder – it could have been a crime of passion, an act of intellectual theft, or revenge for the victim’s work as an expert witness, testifying against violent criminals.

In the first part, a literary agent receives a partial book manuscript written by a man named Richard Flynn, who worked for Weider at the time of his death. The agent, Katz, thinks that the book may be a confession to murder, but unfortunately Flynn dies before he can complete the story. The manuscript takes up most of Katz’s section of the novel, so we hear about events from Flynn’s own perspective first. He writes about his girlfriend Laura, and her relationship as protégé to Professor Weider. According to Richard, the two were working on a secret project involving memory and its manipulation – Laura told him that the project essentially involved erasing traumatic memories in soldiers. Richard is overwhelmed by the idea that our memories are not “reality” but are in fact subjective, to be edited by our future minds.

After Richard’s story ends abruptly, Katz hires an investigative journalist, John Keller, to follow up on the details of Weider’s death. He interviews several key witnesses, such as the brain-damaged handyman Derek, who Weider took care of after he was released from psychiatric care. Keller also manages to track down Laura, who tells him that Richard was not actually her boyfriend – he was a delusional stalker and she changed her name to hide from him. Laura’s testimony calls into question the validity of all of Richard’s memories, and she casts him as the main suspect in Weider’s murder. Like Keller, we cannot know which account of the relationship is true.

Keller also meets with retired detective Roy Freeman, who narrates the final section of the novel – he is inspired to take another look at the Weider case, which he worked on as a young police officer. Roy has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and as he deals with the effects of his diagnosis, his character embellishes the theme of memory and forgetting. He shows us that we are all unreliable when narrating our own lives, as memories are continually evolving. Roy’s investigation finally leads to the truth about the night that Weider died, although his path is very convoluted.

I found the voices of the narrators in each part to be very similar, and I think the story would have been more compelling if they were more distinct as characters. I also think the memory theme was underdeveloped – it was implied from the start that solving the crime will be connected to memory and psychology, and I think it could have gone in a more interesting, less traditional direction. The ending also doesn’t tie up all the loose ends, and some interesting plot threads were completely dropped. This was still an intriguing, intelligent mystery novel, but the whole time I found myself waiting for more.

I received this book from Atria Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Good, solid mystery told from three distinct viewpoints with plenty of red herrings, unreliable witnesses and unlikeable characters. But the story is juicy and spans 30 years. Many of the original bystanders and participants are either dead, missing or misdirecting this last pass at solving a murder so cold even the old news accounts crack like ice when pursued. Why should anyone still care? Amazingly, it seems just a little stir and quite a few people care and finding the answer becomes increasingly fascinating. The plot centers around the role of memory: how we use it and how it fails us when we most rely upon it. This is a good book and a joy to read. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Book of Mirrors by E.O Chirovici was truly a book that I would describe as a slow burn. Not truly a thriller per say, but more a slow moving mystery. This one read like a noir detective novel. Even though it is set in the 1980s, it felt more like it would fit in the 1950s.

What I Liked:
Format: I did love the book within a book format. I think novels that do this successfully are incredibly smart and well written. Chirovici was able to do this effortlessly. I also loved the way the novel was broken into sections with three separate narrations leading into the conclusion of the murder.

What I Struggled With:
The Pace: when I say this one was a slow burn, I mean SLOOOWWWW. I didn’t find that I was becoming overly attached or hooked to the story at any point during the writing.

This one truly seems like it is a love it or hate it type of read; it, personally, was not a novel I would choose to read again or highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this thriller.

Peter Katzis a literary agent who receives an unusual query and partial manuscript from fledgling writer Richard Flynn. Richard’s powerful life-changing and tragic story leaves Peter wanting to know more so he sets out to find the rest of the manuscript.

In the shared pieces of Richard’s manuscript we meet wickedly smart Laura Baines, a fellow Princeton psychology student studying to get her second Master’s; famous Professor Joseph Wieder, who runs a research program at Princeton that is expected to be a huge scientific breakthrough. He is also supervising Laura on her graduate thesis. Laura is Wieder’s protégé but is she also something more? Richard is falling in love with her and becoming suspicious. One day Joseph Wieder is murdered and Richard becomes a suspect.

The story is now in place and the search is on to find the rest of the manuscript and to find resolution in the 25-year old unsolved case. It is set up in three parts from three different perspectives; that of Peter Katz; another from John Keller, a journalist/blogger and friend of Peter ‘s who’s curiosity is piqued after John tells him about Richard Flynn’s manuscript; and lastly Roy Freeman, a retired detective involved in the 25-year old unsolved case and still obsessed by it.

Well, I became obsessed with this book, loved the multi-perspectives, the twists and the mystery surrounding the manuscript. The back-stories of characters were just right and didn’t get bogged down. It was a suspenseful crime story that hooked me early on and kept me guessing until the end.
*will also be posting to Amazon/Powells/B&N upon publication.

This book is in 3 parts. The first part is the manuscript that Peter Katz receives from Richard Flynn, that documents his time under the infamous Joseph Wieder. Wieder was murdered in his own home and the case was never solved. The manuscript stops short and Peter wonders if Richard's memoir is presented as a confession or not. The second part introduces John Keller, the journalist Katz hires to research the murder and who tracks down people closest to the professor in order to piece the story together. He manages to track down a police detective assigned to the original case, Roy Freeman, who has early onset Alzheimer's. A reminder of this case propels him to go back into the case and try to solve it before his mind fights back.

Sometimes you go into a book thinking it's going to be a certain way and it turns out to be another. This wasn't the typical thriller that I am used to reading. It's a bit of a slow burn, crime case. What was great about this book was it's old school, solve a mystery feel. It's nice to see the different perspectives in the various steps it took to try and solve this mystery. However, I was expecting something completely different so was a little taken aback. It was a bit too slow of a burn for me and I found my mind wandering a lot throughout the story. If you like that old school, investigative, multiple POV type crime story, this is definitely a good one to pick up. If you're looking for something more fast paced, then I would say this story isn't for you.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

This book was a a story told in three different parts. I felt that each part had a distinctive feel, which was unique!

The first part was a bit slow, but I was glad that I stuck it out, because the next two parts really paid off. I would definitely suggest this book!

I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't a psychological thriller, but more of a literary thriller/mystery. There are definitely crime and thriller elements, but it's not one of those fast-paced, quick read thrillers (if that makes sense). This is more of a story within a story about an old cold case. This book is about different stories - the ones we tell, the ones we keep hidden, and then the ones we'll do anything to make sure they stay buried.

We follow a literary agent, Peter Katz. The beginning of the book is him reading a partial book transcript, The Book of Mirrors, that he has received as a submission. It is about author Richard Flynn and his time as an English student at Princeton circa the late 1980s, and his relationship with famous Professor Joseph Wieder. Jut before Christmas in 1987, Wieder is brutally murdered, and the case went cold for 25 years. Peter Katz suspects that Flynn is using his book for one of two things: to confess to the murder, or to reveal who really committed the violent murder.

We follow the story through the eyes of Peter Katz, John Keller (the journalist hired to investigate the memoir and crime), and then Detective Roy Freeman (the original detective assigned tot he case). It definitely is different from other crime stories in that it doesn't 100% focus on the investigation and what the police are doing to solve the crime. There are many layers to this story and it's definitely a slow burn type thriller/mystery. It's a very different and unique story!

Thank you to Atria for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

On the surface this is a whodunit...but once you delve into the story, you will see (read) that it is more of an interpretation of memories. Told in three parts with three pov's, it is a nicely woven tale of a long ago murder.

I found the play on the memory theme to be very thought provoking. Interesting to read how the same event/person is seen or remembered differently from various people. The characters were varied and interesting, although I would have liked to be able to differentiate the voices of John and Roy a little more. They sounded too similar. Fast-paced and an easy read.

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

The first part of this book started off strong for me and I was engaged with he mystery. However the following chapters seemed to take a turn and became vague and I felt bored. By the end I wasn't sure I cared anymore about the resolution

‘They’d all been wrong and had seen nothing but their own obsessions in the windows they’d tried to gaze through, which, in fact, turned out to have been mirrors all along.’

When Peter Katz receives a compelling partial manuscript, he contacts the author immediately in hopes of receiving the end of the story only to find out that he’s been hospitalized from complications due to lung cancer. He dies days later but Peter is unable to leave the story be because the story involves an individual by the name of Joseph Wieder who was murdered in real-life and he feels the story possesses the echoes of truth. Could this story possibly be the puzzle piece that ends up solving this unsolved crime? When Peter hires investigative journalist John Keller to look for the missing manuscript, he comes up empty. Diving back into the past and interviewing individuals who knew Joseph Wieder in an attempt to decipher whether the manuscript was truthful or not proves to be difficult. Who remembers details from decades later? So were the police correct at the time of the crime, is the manuscript correct, or is the truth still waiting to be uncovered?

The Book of Mirrors is a book within a book. The first part of this novel we’re introduced to Peter Katz, and we get to read the exact manuscript that he did. We become acquainted with Richard Flynn (the author of the manuscript) and Laura Baines. Both are students at Princeton and both are acquainted with Joseph Wieder. We learn of the mystery behind Wieder, a brilliant psychology, and of the secret experiments that he was conducting on individuals minds. Whether or not the experiments were what inevitably caused his death or not, it would have been interesting to learn more about them, but rather the story seems to only wish to paint Wieder as something of a mad scientist. The second part of the story is told from the point of view of John Keller, the investigative journalist. And the third and final part is told from the point of view of retired police detective Roy Freeman, the original investigator of the Wieder murder. The separate points of view would have given the story dimension but the voices themselves detract from this objective since they all, unfortunately, sound the same.

Comparisons to Night Film are way off. The story is a slow-paced mystery but the lack of urgency is simply due to the fact that there wasn’t a need for it: the crime was almost three decades old and almost everyone that could have possibly been involved is deceased. This certainly takes away any heightened intensity that a typical detective thriller may have but doesn’t take away from the interest in discovering the truth. Unreliable statements, secrets, and flawed memories will keep the reader speculating but could also have the effect of causing irritation at a continued lack of progress in the investigation. While the resolution is plausible, it was wrapped up a little too flawlessly for my liking.

"The Book of Mirrors" is the story of a partial book manuscript and the truths and lies it uncovers about a brutal murder. That's my nutshell synopsis.

The rest of my review is brief as well, because honestly I've ruminated over this book after finishing it three days ago and I'm still not sure what I took away from it. It's a unique "who-dun-it" novel, but parts of it were so slow and tedious I wasn't sure I wanted to finish it. It really does pick up near the end, but the exposition seemed sloppy. By the time I found out who killed Professor Wieder, I honestly didn't care all that much that my theory had been wrong. So I guess I have to give Chirovici credit for not taking a predictable route, although maybe at some point I just mentally checked out and missed the obvious.

2.5 stars.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.