Book Review: Library of the Dead – Glenn Cooper

3 Small Candles

I’ll admit I picked up this book for a mixture of three reasons. A) Historic aspects. B) It involved a Library. C) um, a mixture of A and B? Recently you may have noticed I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction, so a fictional murder mystery historic action packed roller coaster was a welcome diversion.

There is a series of deaths and the FBI is keen to find the serial killer. The deaths don’t all appear to be murders, yet before their deaths the individuals receive a card informing them of their forthcoming demise.

You primarily follow a washed out FBI agent called Will Piper based in New York. He is not likeable, he drinks too much and his people skills are somewhat lacking. This was a good start and a departure from similar books.

There is a good helping of fictional historic story also. In fact two connected historic storylines based at the same location yet centuries apart. To my welcomed surprise set just down the road from where I live on the Isle of Wight, UK and at a place I had visited recently. An archaeology team in the second world war are on an dig at the ruins of an Abbey. Centuries before the monks are the process of building the same Abbey and part of that building work is a library.

So now we have three main periods of time to follow. The author Glenn Cooper did an incredible job to tie this all together and smoothly. Often in these cases you could find yourself preferring one plotline to another, but this wasn’t the case. The different parts complimented each other. I will only mention the library (as if the name of the book is any answer? hint hint) is relevant to Will’s case hundreds of years later and I found the historic aspect as interesting, if not more so than Will’s FBI case.

This book manages to pack in a tremendous amount of twists and turns, plus a huge number of characters. Yet the book didn’t feel weighed down and wasn’t confusing to follow.

So what didn’t I like about the book? There were a couple of clues to a situation that occurred at the abbey, set in a period of history not explored in the book. I ended up really wanting to explore this. I realise that the additional storyline wouldn’t of added and even subtracted from the overall book. Perhaps Glenn has left this opening for a sequel, who knows.

Was I satisfied with the ending of the book? It was a good ending; it brought the book smoothly to a conclusion. Perhaps in part still wanting more from the book, from the centuries not discussed, I was never going to be truly satisfied with the ending. Don’t get me wrong, this book is a great read and I highly recommend it.

Update: I’ve just discovered that Glenn has written a sequel! Indeed it looks like it does indeed explore those bits that left me wanting to know more. Fantastic, I shall definitely go out of my way to read it. However the Library of the Dead can be read on it’s own without needing to continue with the sequel.

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