The Burning Library

A Novel

De: Gilly Macmillan

Narrado por: Rose Robinson, Steph de Whalley

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.

A Departure

This was an interesting concept and had great potential.
The characters are interesting enough but there are far too many elements to keep up with.
It’s also a bit far fetched and one has to seriously utilize suspension of disbelief to get into the story and commit to the finish.
The character segments switch FAR too quickly and this makes it a bit frustrating to follow who’s doing what and why, etc.
Overall an interesting premise that is executed fairly well.
But I will not be giving this a second pass, unlike virtually all of her other books (some of which I’ve read two or three times).
The performances are stellar-exceptional work there, no complaints.
But I waited for this as a preorder with bated breath and have to say it was a little too out there for me.
I really found the abrupt character transitions off putting and it caused the story to lose its flow for me.
Maybe worth a credit if you can suspend disbelief and don’t mind the abrupt shifts between the characters.
I was hoping for more.
But it’s still better than most of what’s out there in this particular genre.
She’s a phenomenal talent-even if I don’t love the latest offering as much as her previous work.

Fantastic

I really hate having a word minimum but I enjoyed this enough that I'll put in the effort. It was great, suspenseful and kept me engaged.

Meh

I feel like I've read 20 books just like it. The story was okay, but extremely predictable.