South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Old maps, new technology propel labyrinthine plot in ‘Cartographers’
Before the GPS and smart phones made finding directions easier, paper maps provided the way, promising not only accuracy but also pinpointing unfamiliar places, bits of history and roads less traveled. Electronic maps tell where to turn and when, but they sacrifice the soul and beauty of paper maps. Antique maps guided sailors, often showing where sea monsters might reside. Maps — free or inexpensive —available at gas stations got people where they were going, though once unfolded they were near impossible to refold.
“Cartography, at its heart, was about defining one’s place in the world by creating charts and measurements…. that everything could be mapped . . . and thereby understood,” says Nell Young, the heroine of “The Cartographers,” the near perfect second novel by Peng Shepherd.
Combining mystery with a soupçon of fantasy, the supernatural and literary fiction, Shepherd delivers an insightful story about obsession — the things that give us comfort, yet can agitate us, how an obsession can guide a person, or destroy you. “The Cartographers” also is a tale of families, the unshakeable bonds of parents and children, of true friendships that withstand any adversary, of unconditional love and a valentine to libraries. Even when “The Cartographers” dips into “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” territory, Shepherd
keeps the tenets of mysteries paramount.
As its title suggests, “The Cartographers” delves into the world of maps. Nell’s only goal was to follow the career of her parents — Daniel Young, a cartographic scholar in the New York Public Library’s map division, and her late mother, Tamara, a professor who died saving Nell from a house fire.
But Nell’s career is ruined before it begins. On the day she is to be hired at the library, her father fires her following a loud, public argument over a decadesold gas station road map of New York. Father and daughter are estranged for seven years until the police call Nell to tell her Daniel was found dead, apparently of natural causes, at his desk in the library.
Nell’s suspicions are raised after she finds the map they argued over in a secret compartment in Daniel’s desk. A security guard is killed the next day during a botched robbery,
though nothing was taken. Nell teams up with her ex-boyfriend, who works for a tech juggernaut, and several of her parents’ old friends, who also are talented cartographers, to find out what happened to her father.
Shepherd propels an intricate story that goes in several directions, but
it’s always a logical journey. Hidden rooms, secret doors, phantom towns, stores that disappear become part of the thrill of “The Cartographers.” Shepherd makes it all believable.
Intelligent characters inhabit the universe of “The Cartographers,” beginning with Nell, who learns as much about her parents as she does herself.
Shepherd merges old-fashioned maps with modern technology for a labyrinth of a plot that surprises at every turn.
Literary Feast
Peng Shepherd (“The Cartographers”) will be among the authors participating in the annual Literary Feast sponsored by the Broward Public Library Foundation scheduled for April 1-2. A welcome reception with all the authors followed by dinners will be on April 1. The free LitLive panels will be April
2 at the Barnes & Noble,
2051 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, (954)
561-3732.
The Fiction Panel (moderated by Oline Cogdill) begins at 11 a.m., featuring Xochitl Gonzalez, “Olga Dies Dreaming;” Jennifer Haigh, “Mercy Street;” Danya Kukafka, “Notes on an Execution;” Peng Shepherd, “The Cartographers;” Brendan Slocumb. “The Violin Conspiracy.”
The Nonfiction Panel (moderated by Gail Bulfin) begins at 11:45 a.m., featuring Cynthia Barnett, “The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans;” Julie K. Brown, “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story;” Nicholas Griffin, “The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980;” Les Standiford, “Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus.” With sponsors, dinner hosts and guests, the Literary Feast raises money for literacy programs and services at Broward County libraries. Visit bplfoundation.org/anight-of-literary-feasts for details.