Liesl Weiss has been (mostly) happy working in the rare books department of a large university, managing details and working behind the scenes to make the head of the department look good. But when her boss has a stroke and she's left to run things, she discovers that the library's most prized manuscript is missing.
Liesl tries to sound the alarm and inform the police about the missing priceless book but is told repeatedly to keep quiet to keep the doors open and the donors happy. But then a librarian goes missing as well. Liesl must investigate both disappearances, unspooling her colleagues' pasts like the threads of a rare book binding as it becomes clear that someone in the department must be responsible for the theft. What Liesl discovers about the dusty manuscripts she has worked among for so long—and about the people who preserve and revere them—shakes the very foundation on which she has built her life.
Comment: I like books about books or about the book world, whether is bookshops, libraries, etc. When I saw this title and the blurb, I felt it would be something I would like too and I've imagined several possibilities of what the plot might contain. I confess I didn't read anything else about the book, so the impact would be better, but perhaps that was a mistake because this book didn't turn out to go the path I imagined.
Liesl Weiss works at a university library and has done so for decades. She is now taking over the library since the boss has had a stroke and is at the hospital. The president of the university charges her of keeping things running as smoothly as ever, but things prove difficult when they can't open the safe where a rare book was kept. Since the library works with the help of donors, often events are organized to showcase them some of the things most people don't get to see and now everyone wants to see this expensive but prestigious book. When they finally open the safe, the book isn't there. Where can it be? Liesl will have to investigate but in the end, should she call the police or is the library's prestige more important?
This is the first book I try by this author, I had not heard of her before so I was ready to be impressed by the book, her style, and so on, especially bearing in mind the theme I think the overall idea and tone of the story are interesting but when I start thinking about each element on its own... I suppose there is a reason why the average of this book on GR isn't very high...
First of all, I knew this would not be a romance, I've seen all the labels attached to this title, but part of me will always hope some inkling or hint about it might exist, but since Liesl as protagonist, was married and in her 60s if I read that right, the kind of romance I prefer was certainly off the table. Plus, the tone of the novel seemed to be more a mix of small mystery and literary wannabe and that meant that, clearly, the aim here was not the cozy, cute story I still imagined anyway.
The plot isn't overly complex, nor is the actual mystery alluded in the blurb. I think anyone used to read mysteries or thrillers probably guesses the big reveal way sooner than what is shared but as a reader who doesn't only read this genre, part of the whole thing was intriguing enough, even more so when the person who could explain part of the mystery was in the hospital. I still think the author could have done things in a more clever way, or in a way where the books and the library would be a more welcomed place, somewhere where we would be invested to care and want to know what was going on.
In a way, I actually felt a mix of boredom and indifference as things progressed, because the focus wasn't, as I would have preferred, on the whole book investigation but on how each character was affected or was somehow part of the situation. The problem with this is that none of the characters were likable, in my opinion. I can only suppose the author wanted to make them seem flawed and "human" while still being rather professional in the middle of everything. But all of them had some kind of secret and I've found that each person's secret made them unappealing people and not exactly a victim or a character I'd want to root for or to see being redeemed in the end.
Liesl is the one relating the story but I struggled to connect with her. She didn't seem to be that much of a nice person, even when she tried to do good things. I guess I can applaud the author by conveying such impressions on such a small amount of character development, though... as for the secondary characters, all had some kind of flaw like I said, but nothing in this story seemed aimed to make them improve or become more important in the big scheme of things. In fact, some of them and of their actions felt very pointless here and there, which along with a certain depressing vibe regarding all their lives made this less than thrilling to read.
When we discover the solution for the mystery, namely what happened to the missing book and how that connects with the rest of the issues which had been dealt with before, I found myself a bit indifferent, because nothing went in a way that could have made this feel even more of a mystery or anything else. I would say some sections might make me think of this book as a "literary wannabe" project, because some details apparently were aimed to make the story feel more intense and a study on human interactions, but... nothing about it really caught my attention in that regard...
As the daughter of a librarian, and an avid reader in a family of avid readers, I find it sad when novels about librarians fail to engage. I'm sorry this one was a disappointment; thank you for taking one for the team, as it were.
ReplyDeleteLol, the act of reading a book isn't that much of a bother.. unless it's a school book on a subject we don't like ah ah ah
DeleteBut yes, this wasn't as amazing as it could have been...