Editorial Content for The Burning LIbrary
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Reviewer (text)
Gilly Macmillan sets her latest novel, THE BURNING LIBRARY, in Scotland. But it is not long before the action traverses the UK and heads down a historical thriller path similar to what we might expect from an author like Dan Brown.
The book opens on an isolated island in the Western Hebrides of Scotland. A paranoid woman named Eleanor Bruton is attacked and killed in the cabin where she had been hiding in what she thought was safety and obscurity. This sets the tone for the wild ride that is to come involving Dr. Anya Brown, a scholar who has found international fame due to her translation of a cryptic work known as Folio 9. This acclaim puts her on the radar of Diana Cornish, who approaches Anya with a job offer to work with her at the Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews.
"THE BURNING LIBRARY is an intelligent thriller... The characters are quite complex, and the ancient history is exciting and frightening in the best ways."
Anya cannot turn this down. But she is so overwhelmed with the honor that she is completely oblivious to the fact that Diana and her colleagues all belong to one side of an ancient battle between two legendary sects that are seeking a work of such renown that it could change the world beyond the academia level. Anya is about to find herself in the middle of these two powerful groups of women --- the Order of St. Katherine and the Fellowship of the Larks --- that will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Anya asks if Diana can do anything for her boyfriend, who is finishing his studies at Oxford, and she agrees to have him placed locally so he can live with Anya in their cottage located in St. Andrews. In a storyline that runs concurrently to Anya’s, we meet Detective Constable Clio Spicer, who is investigating the murder of Eleanor, a skilled academic who was seeking the same hidden work that the dueling sects are after. It will not be long before Clio’s story converges with Anya’s.
When the Order of St. Katherine strikes back in response to Eleanor’s homicide, we witness a lab filled with the important work of a Lark being burned down. The deadly game of one-upmanship will not end here. The body count rises, and one death in particular finally awakens Anya to the reality that her new job might not be exactly what she had anticipated. When she receives a chilling message inferring that Folio 9 may have been forged, she begins to doubt her own prowess and realizes that her role in this drama may be something else entirely.
THE BURNING LIBRARY is an intelligent thriller, and the event behind the novel’s title is one that will have readers recoiling in shock. The characters are quite complex, and the ancient history is exciting and frightening in the best ways.
Teaser
On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland’s Western Hebrides, Eleanor Bruton’s body is discovered on the shore. Little did Eleanor’s family know that she was harboring a dark and all-consuming secret --- a scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance. For over a century, two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn. When Dr. Anya Brown garners international attention for her translation of the cryptic Folio 9, she is handpicked by Diana Cornish, a professor and high-ranking member of the Fellowship, to join the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews. Unbeknownst to Anya, she’s been recruited at great personal danger to translate ancient texts that the Fellowship believes critical to their mission.
Promo
On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland’s Western Hebrides, Eleanor Bruton’s body is discovered on the shore. Little did Eleanor’s family know that she was harboring a dark and all-consuming secret --- a scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance. For over a century, two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn. When Dr. Anya Brown garners international attention for her translation of the cryptic Folio 9, she is handpicked by Diana Cornish, a professor and high-ranking member of the Fellowship, to join the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews. Unbeknownst to Anya, she’s been recruited at great personal danger to translate ancient texts that the Fellowship believes critical to their mission.
About the Book
From the internationally bestselling author of THE NANNY and WHAT SHE KNEW comes a thrilling dark academic tale of murder, obsession and ruthless ambition, set in remote St. Andrews, Scotland.
A deadly rivalry.
A chilling secret.
One woman who can decipher the truth.
On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland’s Western Isles, Eleanor Bruton’s body is discovered on the shore. To her family Eleanor was an ordinary middle-aged woman. She did flower arrangements and plumped kneeler cushions at church. Little did they know she was harboring a dark and all-consuming secret. A scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance.
For over a century, two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn. The Order of St. Katherine: devoted to the belief that women must pull strings in the shadows to exercise control. And the Fellowship of the Larks, determined to amass as many overt positions of power for women as possible…so long as their methods of doing so never come to light.
When Dr. Anya Brown garners international attention for her translation of the cryptic Folio 9, she is handpicked by Diana Cornish, a professor and high-ranking member of the Fellowship, to join the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews. Unbeknownst to Anya, she’s been recruited at great personal danger to translate ancient texts that the Fellowship believes critical to their mission.
Meanwhile at Scotland Yard, Detective Constable Clio Spicer begins a private investigation into the death of Eleanor Bruton.
As all the women grow further entangled in this ancient web, circumstances spin wildly out of control and their lives may be in grave danger.
Perfect for fans of Alex Michaelides and Ruth Ware, THE BURNING LIBRARY is the story of a centuries-old secret set to divide and consume those who seek to unearth it.
Audiobook available, read by Rose Robinson and Steph de Whalley
