2.5 Stars
Librarians tend to be organized, but the same cannot be said for this book; the best adjective for it, I think, is chaotic.
Four staff members at a branch of the Austin Public Library are the focus in this novel. Hazel has recently moved from Singapore to Austin to begin a new life. Jonathan, a former college football player, is still pining for Ryan, a high school classmate. Astrid is nursing a broken heart after she has been ghosted. Sophie tries to lead a quiet life with her daughter Elise. Two patrons turn up dead after a game night at the library so the police interview all of them. Each of them has secrets they fear will become uncovered by the police investigation. Feeling threatened, they decide to trust their coworkers with their secrets and work together to get to the bottom of the deaths.
The pace is very slow and then the plot becomes convoluted and confusing. Parts are far-fetched and other parts are just weird. For example, the number of connections between various characters is unbelievable. Jonathan loves Ryan who is Conrad’s roommate. Conrad knows Perry (loved by Astrid) who knew Kit who married Hazel who is in love with Conrad?! Conrad and Hazel met in Madeira twelve years ago and now meet again in Austin, Texas? Four timid librarians turn into action heroes skilled in self-defense and the use of weapons?! One character has spent virtually her entire life living a lie and speaking with a fake Swedish accent? People have names like Heneage Pericles Bathurst and Valerian Conrad de Clausonne de Villiers? We are to accept Jeannette’s motivation for contacting Sophie? In the middle of a crisis, a character makes a list of things to do and others take copious notes?
The story of Kit’s deceptions is so complicated. We are subjected to explanations of his behaviour like, “’the reason he embezzled was to meet a margin call so that the exchange wouldn’t start liquidating his Bitcoin positions.’” Why would Kit have put a box of books in a random library in Austin before he knows that Hazel is going to move to Austin and get a job there? And in that box he includes a yearbook with a message for Hazel?! Then when the blockchain private key is found, it’s never used?!
Other things make no sense. The force of a plane crash, even in water, causes significant trauma to the human body, leading to severe injuries that can fragment a body, yet the victim of such a crash “does not look dead, but . . . restful”? One minute the murders are solved and Detective Shariati “will receive the bulk of the credit for solving the murders of Perry Bathurst, Jeannette Obermann” and then three sentences later, Detective Hagerty hopes “he can successfully pin Jeannette Obermann’s death on the quiet librarian”? Some things just stretch credibility. For instance, not just one but two copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio are found that were probably “held by criminal elements”? And Hazel needs to borrow a stack of rare books for inspiration for a book-themed tabletop game? The police would allow civilians to be so involved in a plan to entrap suspects and even allow them to carry weapons? Private investigators play key roles and always have useful friends.
The plot is not linear: there is constant switching among characters and times so it’s difficult to know who was doing what when. In other words, plot construction can only be described as clumsy and awkward. And then, once the murders are solved, the novel goes on and on and on to make certain that everyone has a happy ending.
What stands out in terms of style is the use of pop culture references: “She is as beautiful and resolute as Daenerys Targaryen, standing at the bow of her ship, sailing to Westeros – except the Khaleesi should have stayed the fuck home” and “So many emotions – in such overwhelming quantities – have besieged her, like the legions of Mordor coming to sack Minas Tirith” and “’I don’t want you to think that I was Don Draper, escaping some kind of horrible Midwestern past’” and “Nainai voguing as she slides into the camera frame, blue steeling as if she gave birth not only to a doctor and two engineers, but also Zoolander himself.”
The book relies on romance, with virtually everyone yearning for someone, a thin and contrived mystery, a convoluted plot with plot holes, and an unacceptable number of coincidences and random connections. The result is a clunky book lacking cohesion.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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