Land of math, magic plotted out
Nell Young has lived with maps her entire life, first as the only child of eminent cartographers and later as an expert in cartography herself.
Even so, Nell doesn’t realize just how magical maps can be until her estranged father dies suddenly in his office at the New York Public Library and she finds a document that offers a surprising pathway into a strange, secret world.
The gripping story plotted out in “The Cartographers” is the latest product of Peng Shepherd’s creative imagination, providing readers with many tantalizing twists and surprises along the way as she explores the intersection between science and art, mathematics and magic.
Shepherd knows a bit about maps from her life as a globetrotter. Born and raised in Phoenix, she has since lived in far flung cosmopolitan cities, including Beijing; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; London; and New York.
Like her earlier dystopian tale “The Book of M,” Shepherd’s latest novel is sometimes dark, describing mystical happenings that science cannot explain.
“The Cartographers” constantly astonishes readers as Shepherd sweeps us into the past when Nell’s parents are among a group of graduate students drawn together by their goal of creating the world’s ultimate map. Their “Dreamers’ Atlas” was to include even the maps in “The Chronicles of Narnia,” a fantasy novel series by C.S. Lewis.
The college friends were all there when Nell was a toddler and her mother died in a fire. Later, they learn of how Nell’s legendary father, Dr. Daniel Young, suddenly and cruelly ended her promising cartography career
shortly after an argument over a foldable gas station roadway map of New York state dating to 1930.
As time goes on, deep secrets held inside families and groups of old friends are revealed, lies hidden inside the truth are laid bare and imaginary places become real as Nell learns about the phantom settlements map makers have used to catch rivals violating their copyrights.
In the end, Nell learns that what is written on paper doesn’t always reflect reality, and that a map’s important purpose is to bring people together. — Anita Snow, Associated Press
The elderly owner of a decaying hotel in Kennewick, Maine, is shoved to the ground, dragged to a tidal pool and held there face down until he drowns. When police arrive, they find a crumpled piece of paper clutched in his hand.
On it is a typewritten list of nine names. Nothing more. But the hotel owner’s name is among them.
Meanwhile, in cities and towns scattered across the country, eight other people receive the same list in the mail. They include a struggling actor in Los Angeles, a college professor in Michigan and an FBI
agent in New York. Some of them are men, and some are women. Most, but not all, are middle-aged. They appear to have nothing in common. The only name any of them recognize is their own.
Before long, another person on the list is murdered. And then another. Realizing it’s a kill list, the FBI scrambles to locate and offer protection to everyone left.
Mystery fans will be quick to recognize that the plot of Peter Swanson’s “Nine Lives” resembles Agatha Christie’s classic novel, “And Then There Were None.”
Kennewick police detective Sam Hamilton spots this right off, but he notes that there are differences as well. In the Christie novel, the victims were isolated on an island, and there were 10 potential victims. He also notes that in the old novel, the killer was hiding among the 10.
With his seven previous mysteries, the author has earned a reputation for ingenious plotting and a clear, precise writing style — and “Nine Lives” is no exception. And this time, he tells readers just enough about the lives of the nine people on the hit list to make readers care what happens to them.