The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici

About The Book of Mirrors


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?


My review of The Book of Mirrors

Let me begin by saying that I loved this book. The Book of Mirrors is a murder mystery told in a completely unique way. As the name suggests, this is a book within a book, and we are never quite sure if what we are reading is fact or fiction.

The book is divided into three parts. Each part offers a unique viewpoint of the events that took place leading up to the murder. Part one is Richard Flynn. He is an author who submits a partial manuscript, the first three chapters, to a literary agent. The story  is about a real life crime that took place thirty years ago, while Richard was at University. It is during this part of the book that we are introduced to Laura Baines, Richard's new housemate, and later on girlfriend, who in turn introduces him to Professor Wieder. It is the Professor, who many months after their initial meeting, is found murdered. But who killed him? Was it Richard? Or Laura? Or someone else known to him? This first part of the book, that is roughly thirty percent of the novel, sets the tone beautifully and makes you want to carry on reading, as you simply need to know what happened. The problem is that the literary agent only has the first three chapters, he too, like the reader, needs to know what happened.

This then leads us onto part two of the book, where John Keller, a journalist, tries to find out what actually happened. In part three we are introduced to the policeman, Roy Freeman, who had worked on the original murder case. I can't say anything else without spoiling the plot. All I will say is that this book centres around memories, and asks the reader several questions. Can a person's memory every really be trusted? Isn't memory subjective, in that we can change our memories to suit our own specific needs? Memories are at the core of the book. Memories that are forgotten, memories that are real and those memories that are pure fabrication.

Throughout the book we are told different accounts of what happened, and I really didn't know who to believe, nor could I work out who had killed the Professor. What I really enjoyed about the book, was that although it is a psychological thriller, for me it took on a completely different pace, it took its time, it did not rush. The personal accounts, in all three parts of the book, are incredibly detailed and this made me feel as if I knew each and every one of these characters. This is something that is difficult to do with multiple first person point of views. The Book of Mirrors is a highly enjoyable read, and once I started to read it, I couldn't put it down. If you enjoy murder mysteries, with an added twist, then you will love this book!

The Book of Mirrors is published by Century on January 26th.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for am Advanced Reader Copy

The Book of Mirrors is available to preorder from Amazon here 

About the Author


Inspired by false memories from his childhood and written in the author’s second language, remarkably The Book of Mirrors nearly wasn’t published at all.

Having been rejected in the US, E. O. Chirovici took the novel to a small UK publisher who advised him to try just one more time to get it to a wider readership. He did, and The Book of Mirrors was immediately signed by a literary agent, sparking a UK auction and world-wide rights sales.

E. O. Chirovici now lives in Brussels with his wife. He has had a prestigious and varied career in the Romanian media and has also published novels and short stories in his native language. The Book of Mirrors is his first novel in English and is being published in January.