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The Book of Mirrors

Now a major movie starring Russell Crowe, renamed Sleeping Dogs

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The Book of Mirrors

By: E.O. Chirovici
Narrated by: Corey Brill, George Newbern, Jonathan Todd Ross, Pete Simonelli
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About this listen

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici, read by Corey Brill, Jonathan Todd Ross, Pete Simonelli and George Newbern.

THE ONE BOOK YOU WON’T FORGET IN 2017

A gripping psychological thriller full of hidden fragments and dark reflections.

How would you piece together a murder?

Do you trust other people’s memories?
Do you trust your own?
Should you?

Princeton, 1987: renowned psychologist Professor Joseph Weider is brutally murdered.

New York, twenty-five years later: literary agent Peter Katz receives a manuscript. Or is it a confession?

Today: unearth the secrets of The Book of Mirrors and discover why your memory is the most dangerous weapon of all.

Already translated into 37 languages, The Book of Mirrors is the perfect novel for fans of psychological suspense and reading group fiction.

Praise for The Book of Mirrors

'Intelligent and sophisticated - a crime story told the way Picasso painted pictures. Highly recommended.' Lee Child

'A literary thriller - complex, gripping and a beautiful read.' Jenni Murray

'An elegant, gripping, multi-layered tale about the illusory nature of truth and memory. I loved it.' Tammy Cohen

'The Book of Mirrors is exactly what I look for in a thriller: a great concept, brilliantly executed, smarter than it seems and knotty enough to keep you guessing. Like the best stories about memory, it leaves the reader wondering what's true and what isn't.' - James Smythe

‘This Romanian author's debut novel in English is an agile and provocative exploration the tricks memory can play’ - Sunday Times

'An impressive first novel, intelligent and well written’ - The Times

This twisty, brilliantly written tale of a grisly unsolved murder at Princeton asks if we can truly trust our own memories. This nuanced, multi-layered book has a cracking plot to boot and will be devoured by thriller fans - Sun

‘slippery murder mystery’ - Irish Independent

'Intricately plotted … Faulty memories, outright lies, and secrets make it hard to know whom to believe. The action builds to a crafty and believable resolution.' Publisher's Weekly

‘I read The Book of Mirrors in a single sitting. It’s a brilliant novel that is utterly compelling’ Jo’s Book Blog

‘Beautifully written, with a very clever structure' Fully Booked

‘This is as much a whydunit as a whodunit and the reader is drawn deeper into a web of ruthless ambition, manipulation and revenge.' The Bookbag

 Crime Thrillers Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Thriller Mystery

Critic reviews

THE ONE BOOK YOU WON’T FORGET IN 2017

A gripping psychological thriller full of hidden fragments and dark reflections.

How would you piece together a murder?

Do you trust other people’s memories?
Do you trust your own?
Should you?
Intelligent and sophisticated - a crime story told the way Picasso painted pictures. Highly recommended.
Magical in its storytelling, the novel lingers in the memory long after an immensely satisfying denouement
entirely compelling
I loved this twisty mind game! The Book Of Mirrors starts with a secret manuscript about a cold-case murder and then uses a host of characters and perspectives to make you look in every direction but at the truth. Who is lying? Is anyone's recall perfect? This isn't just a very clever thriller - it leaves us wondering how much we subconsciously manipulate our own memories to protect ourselves.
An elegant, gripping, multi-layered tale about the illusory nature of truth and memory. I loved it.
A literary thriller - complex, gripping and a beautiful read.
This Romanian author's debut novel in English is an agile and provocative exploration the tricks memory can play
An impressive first novel, intelligent and well written’
This twisty, brilliantly written tale of a grisly unsolved murder at Princeton asks if we can truly trust our own memories. This nuanced, multi-layered book has a cracking plot to boot and will be devoured by thriller fans
All stars
Most relevant
While the climax isn't wow, it is a well-written and well structured novel. Surrounding the death of a professor, there are multiple narratives and plots working against each other, with the constant question raised throughout about who is telling the truth. Good not perfect first novel.

Interesting concept, well structured

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One of the best books of 2022.
Intelligent story line & credible characters. The twists were unexpected without having the feeling of a mad, hard to believe Hollywood type of movie.

Oh, and the author used to be a minister in the Romanian government.😊

Great story, multiple twists

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What did you like about this audiobook?

I read the Amazon reviews of this book and I was really excited when the release date came around. The book premise sounded original and it feels like I haven't read anything really good for an age. However, the narration on this audiobook is awful. It's read with a nasal monotone and 30 minutes into the book I've given up. I think I'll turn to Plan B and buy the physical book. Despite the narration the little I've heard gives me hope that this will turn out to be a decent read although it's hard to tell this early on in the book.

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Dreadful, nasal, uninteresting monotone makes it very difficult to listen to. Extremely boring.

I couldn't listen to the narration!

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Reading the hype around this book and an article about how the author had left his native Romania to seek a bigger audience makes it sound like something quite special. The fact that it seems to have a slew of endorsements and that it attracted huge interest from publishers in so many countries further adds to its sheen. If it is so special I admit that I simply didn't get it. There is some cleverness in it and undoubtedly the third part of the book was much more enjoyable than the rest but nothing to match the claims being made.

The structure is interesting and concerns the murder of a college professor. It consists of three parts; an old manuscript for a book, a reporter's attempts to investigate the story followed by the last ditch attempts of one of the original investigating detectives to make sense out of it. To me each part was better than the previous one and the concluding section was genuinely enjoyable. However, maybe something got lost in translation, the language used jars often enough to be distracting.

What definitely doesn't help is the narration. With the slightly jarring text it felt like the first narrator was bored and just trying to get it over and done with as fast as possible. The combination of this text and narration was the audiobook equivalent of being machine gunned. Listen to the audio sample before you buy. Again as the book goes on the narration improves but never really reaches any great heights.

So, it is entirely possible that this audio production doesn't do the book full justice. It's also possible that I missed some of the subtlety and cleverness that is being claimed for it as my ear drums dodged some of the word bullets fired at them in that opening section. With those caveats in mind I can't really recommend this one as being much beyond a by the numbers whodunit with some twists and turns along the way.

More Smoke Than Mirrors

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