Scan barcode
A review by saarahnina
The Book of Mirrors: Now a major movie starring Russell Crowe, renamed Sleeping Dogs by E.O. Chirovici, E.O. Chirovici
5.0
I have just discovered my kind of book, I didn't want to finish it!
This is such an astoundingly intelligent book, there were so many twists and turns. It had me cutting corners, drawing a blank, not knowing what to expect, racing ahead, creating my own scenarios, and constantly reaching dead ends....Even then, the ending was a complete surprise. This book has been the most engaging I've read in a long time, I feel as though I've exhausted my brain- in a good way, just so we're clear.
All the characters had a story, there was intrigue hints of scandal, dark histories of being misunderstood, of being framed, used and manipulated. I was at a loss for just who could possibly have been the perpetrator of the crime. They were all such viable suspects, something a little 'off' about all of them. Could they all have worked together? Could Professor Weider have created his own elaborate 'murder' to frame someone, or all of them? The characters, themselves, were at a loss too- no one seemed to have the slightest evidence. They all just had theories....I was just as engaged as they were, struggling to piece things together with a feeling that something was still missing.
For the longest time when I was reading this book, I was more than convinced of the perpetrator. My bet was Laura, she being a close student of Professor Weider, and a psychology student. I've actually always loved Psychology, and I've studied it for a number of years, and I both, resent and admire the societal stereotypes we have of psychologists. As is typical of most people, I've always been of the opinion that one can't really trust psychologists. The way they are able to manipulate thoughts, get into your head, have you open yourself up to them, has always disturbed me. And this is how we learn Professor Weider, a cognitive psychologist, to have been:
'.... he always seemed stuck inside a sort of glass cubicle, locked up in there by his own incapacity to accept that others weren’t just sock puppets in his twisted mind games.' And I thought the same thing of his student, Laura. I just kept imagining the number of minds she had been toying with, ever since the murder of her Professor. All in all, I'm pleased I was wrong.
This really is just the kind of book that makes you want to be a detective. But, unlike is common of most detective mysteries, Chirovici focusses on the motives of the individuals, what drove them to kill, it was all 'whydunit', as he writes in his 'Author's note', as well as a 'whodunit'. As a lover of history, I loved this element within the book. History, itself, seeks to uncover every small detail which contributed to any event, an individual's motives and intentions have a lot to do with that.
I honestly think this book will make a really good film. Honestly. One of those really complicated films that you're still immersed in long after you've watched it. Chirovici really is correct when he writes of the feeling the ex-detective felt once the case was finally solved, I feel the same way after finishing this book. He writes: 'When you finally discover the truth about a case that has obsessed you for a while, it’s like losing a travelling companion. A talkative, prying and perhaps even ill-mannered companion, but one you’ve grown used to having around when you wake up in the morning.'
I received this book through NetGalley.
This is such an astoundingly intelligent book, there were so many twists and turns. It had me cutting corners, drawing a blank, not knowing what to expect, racing ahead, creating my own scenarios, and constantly reaching dead ends....Even then, the ending was a complete surprise. This book has been the most engaging I've read in a long time, I feel as though I've exhausted my brain- in a good way, just so we're clear.
All the characters had a story, there was intrigue hints of scandal, dark histories of being misunderstood, of being framed, used and manipulated. I was at a loss for just who could possibly have been the perpetrator of the crime. They were all such viable suspects, something a little 'off' about all of them. Could they all have worked together? Could Professor Weider have created his own elaborate 'murder' to frame someone, or all of them? The characters, themselves, were at a loss too- no one seemed to have the slightest evidence. They all just had theories....I was just as engaged as they were, struggling to piece things together with a feeling that something was still missing.
For the longest time when I was reading this book, I was more than convinced of the perpetrator. My bet was Laura, she being a close student of Professor Weider, and a psychology student. I've actually always loved Psychology, and I've studied it for a number of years, and I both, resent and admire the societal stereotypes we have of psychologists. As is typical of most people, I've always been of the opinion that one can't really trust psychologists. The way they are able to manipulate thoughts, get into your head, have you open yourself up to them, has always disturbed me. And this is how we learn Professor Weider, a cognitive psychologist, to have been:
'.... he always seemed stuck inside a sort of glass cubicle, locked up in there by his own incapacity to accept that others weren’t just sock puppets in his twisted mind games.' And I thought the same thing of his student, Laura. I just kept imagining the number of minds she had been toying with, ever since the murder of her Professor. All in all, I'm pleased I was wrong.
This really is just the kind of book that makes you want to be a detective. But, unlike is common of most detective mysteries, Chirovici focusses on the motives of the individuals, what drove them to kill, it was all 'whydunit', as he writes in his 'Author's note', as well as a 'whodunit'. As a lover of history, I loved this element within the book. History, itself, seeks to uncover every small detail which contributed to any event, an individual's motives and intentions have a lot to do with that.
I honestly think this book will make a really good film. Honestly. One of those really complicated films that you're still immersed in long after you've watched it. Chirovici really is correct when he writes of the feeling the ex-detective felt once the case was finally solved, I feel the same way after finishing this book. He writes: 'When you finally discover the truth about a case that has obsessed you for a while, it’s like losing a travelling companion. A talkative, prying and perhaps even ill-mannered companion, but one you’ve grown used to having around when you wake up in the morning.'
I received this book through NetGalley.