Title: His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae: A Historical Thriller
Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Publisher: New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015
A Man Booker Prize finalist, Burnet's second novel imagines a triple murder in a rural Scotland farming community through a series of documents, including an account by the 17 year old Roderick Macrae who's accused of the crimes.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
The Novels of Steve Berry
The Novels of Steve Berry
- The Third Secret, 2005, about the Fatima vision, takes us into the Vatican's Riserva, "the special archive open only to popes"
- The Templar Legacy, 2006, revolves around a search for the lost archives of the Knights Templar
- The Alexandria Link, 2007, is about a search for the key to the location of the remnants of the ancient Library at Alexandria, Egypt
- The Venetian Betrayal, 2007, involves European museums being destroyed by fire
- The 14th Colony, 2016, sees hero Cotton Malone in Russia where he encounters a former KGB archivist, Vadim Belchenko; the archives of the post-Revolutionary American Society of the Cincinnati also play a role.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Braindead (2016-) TV series
Title: Braindead (2016-)
In this witty political satire that features clips from the 2016 Presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, extraterrestrial invaders in the form of ant-like creatures find their way into the brains of various Washington, D.C., politicians and their staff.
In the episode titled "Taking on Water: How Leaks in D.C. Are Discovered and Patched" broadcast on August 21, 2016, character Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who works for her brother Democrat Senator Luke Healy (Danny Pino), meets with her lover Gareth Ritter (Aaron Tveit), chief of staff to Republican and infected Senator Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub), in front of the National Archives. The establishing shot before we see them shows a plinth with the engraved words "Study the Past". Another shot from ground level looking up at them with the building in the background shows its name over the columned entrance, "Archives of the United States of America."
In this witty political satire that features clips from the 2016 Presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, extraterrestrial invaders in the form of ant-like creatures find their way into the brains of various Washington, D.C., politicians and their staff.
In the episode titled "Taking on Water: How Leaks in D.C. Are Discovered and Patched" broadcast on August 21, 2016, character Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who works for her brother Democrat Senator Luke Healy (Danny Pino), meets with her lover Gareth Ritter (Aaron Tveit), chief of staff to Republican and infected Senator Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub), in front of the National Archives. The establishing shot before we see them shows a plinth with the engraved words "Study the Past". Another shot from ground level looking up at them with the building in the background shows its name over the columned entrance, "Archives of the United States of America."
The Vaults (2010) novel
Original Novel Title: The Vaults
Author: Toby Ball
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2010.
A debut novel that features a North American municipal archivist, Arthur Puskis, who's in charge of an enormous building in the unnamed City which contains criminal justice records dating back 70 years. The Vaults of the novel's title are located in a subbasement of City Hall. Puskis discovers a duplicate file, something that should not have happened. After reporting this error to the police Chief, he's ordered to take his first vacation in 18 years, which dates the novel's chronology to 1935. From there the mystery deepens as he undertakes his own investigation.
Author: Toby Ball
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2010.
A debut novel that features a North American municipal archivist, Arthur Puskis, who's in charge of an enormous building in the unnamed City which contains criminal justice records dating back 70 years. The Vaults of the novel's title are located in a subbasement of City Hall. Puskis discovers a duplicate file, something that should not have happened. After reporting this error to the police Chief, he's ordered to take his first vacation in 18 years, which dates the novel's chronology to 1935. From there the mystery deepens as he undertakes his own investigation.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
The Forgotten Room (2015) novel
Original Novel Title: The Forgotten Room
Author: Lincoln Child
Publisher: Doubleday, 2015.
Lincoln Child, who also has collaborated on a series of well-received novels with Douglas Preston, sets his sixth solo novel in the rareified world of a Rhode Island think tank known as Lux. The forgotten room of the title references a hidden room within the huge mansion that houses Lux, the former home of the eccentric and wealthy Edward Delaveaux whose wife's ghost was said to still haunt a hallway of Lux.
The forgotten room contains a secret which one Lux researcher has already paid for with his life in a grisly suicide. Jeremy Logan, a Yale University professor who moonlights as an enigmalogist by solving unexplainable mysteries such as the Loch Ness monster or ghosts, is hired by Lux's director to investigate this out-of-character suicide. In doing so, Logan places his own life in jeopardy.
Early on during his investigation on behalf of Lux's director, he visits the institute's archives, located as archives usually are, in the mansion's basement. The think tank does not provide him with maps or signage nor did it occur to him to ask, so he has to find the archives on his own, where he eventually
He's initially denied access because he has only a temporary ID card. He quickly overturns the archivist's decision with a letter the director provided him entitling him to unrestricted access. Not knowing exactly what he's looking for other than files pertaining to the 1930s, the archivist provides him with "blank document requisition forms." (p. 79)
After some discussion over the nature of his archival research and request to look for documents himself in the stacks, the archivist reluctantly agrees with the caveat that he "take no more than five folders from the stacks at a time. And please be careful when you refile them." (p. 80)
He spends a total of three hours at this research, "scribbling his observations into a small notebook with a gold pen," and realizes in the end that the files do not contain any records more recent than 2000 even though he was only interested in files from the 1930s. (p. 81)
The archivist informs him that more recent records are either with the scientists themselves or "'in archive two, beyond that door.' And she pointed toward the far end of the room." Archive two turns out to be off-limits to Logan even with his special letter of access. Seems he required "a level-A access or greater" according to the security guard who's armed with a nightstick and a can of Mace. "Then he [Logan] nodded, turned, and made his way back through the stacks and into the basement corridor beyond." (p. 81-82)
So the main archive stacks have no security other the guard who's at one end and who's purpose is guard against intruders to archive two. Filing cabinets for storage are so 1970s. Any archives worth its upkeep would more than likely not permit the use of pens to take notes. At least the part about the archives being relegated to a basement seems to accord with the location of many archival facilities with which I'm familiar.
Author: Lincoln Child
Publisher: Doubleday, 2015.
Lincoln Child, who also has collaborated on a series of well-received novels with Douglas Preston, sets his sixth solo novel in the rareified world of a Rhode Island think tank known as Lux. The forgotten room of the title references a hidden room within the huge mansion that houses Lux, the former home of the eccentric and wealthy Edward Delaveaux whose wife's ghost was said to still haunt a hallway of Lux.
The forgotten room contains a secret which one Lux researcher has already paid for with his life in a grisly suicide. Jeremy Logan, a Yale University professor who moonlights as an enigmalogist by solving unexplainable mysteries such as the Loch Ness monster or ghosts, is hired by Lux's director to investigate this out-of-character suicide. In doing so, Logan places his own life in jeopardy.
Early on during his investigation on behalf of Lux's director, he visits the institute's archives, located as archives usually are, in the mansion's basement. The think tank does not provide him with maps or signage nor did it occur to him to ask, so he has to find the archives on his own, where he eventually
"arrived at an open door with a sign that read ARCHIVES. Beyond the door, the walls and ceiling fell away, revealing a most impressive space bathed in bright yet pleasingly mellow light. Row after row of filing cabinets ran from front to back in achingly regular lines, but they were spaced far enough apart to forestall any sense of oppressiveness. At the far end, Logan could just make out another, smaller door, with what looked like a security station beside it. He stepped inside. ...
"Just inside the door, an elderly woman was seated at an official-looking table. A nameplate on one side of the desk read J. RAMANUJAN. She ran her eyes up and down Logan, lips pursing with an expression he could not decide was appraising or disapproving." (p. 78-79)
He's initially denied access because he has only a temporary ID card. He quickly overturns the archivist's decision with a letter the director provided him entitling him to unrestricted access. Not knowing exactly what he's looking for other than files pertaining to the 1930s, the archivist provides him with "blank document requisition forms." (p. 79)
After some discussion over the nature of his archival research and request to look for documents himself in the stacks, the archivist reluctantly agrees with the caveat that he "take no more than five folders from the stacks at a time. And please be careful when you refile them." (p. 80)
He spends a total of three hours at this research, "scribbling his observations into a small notebook with a gold pen," and realizes in the end that the files do not contain any records more recent than 2000 even though he was only interested in files from the 1930s. (p. 81)
The archivist informs him that more recent records are either with the scientists themselves or "'in archive two, beyond that door.' And she pointed toward the far end of the room." Archive two turns out to be off-limits to Logan even with his special letter of access. Seems he required "a level-A access or greater" according to the security guard who's armed with a nightstick and a can of Mace. "Then he [Logan] nodded, turned, and made his way back through the stacks and into the basement corridor beyond." (p. 81-82)
So the main archive stacks have no security other the guard who's at one end and who's purpose is guard against intruders to archive two. Filing cabinets for storage are so 1970s. Any archives worth its upkeep would more than likely not permit the use of pens to take notes. At least the part about the archives being relegated to a basement seems to accord with the location of many archival facilities with which I'm familiar.
Friday, April 3, 2015
The World Before Us (2014) novel
Original Novel Title: The World Before Us
Author: Aislinn Hunter
Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2014.
This novel contains three timelines, one of which, 2010, has an archivist, 34 year-old Jane Standen, who works for a London museum that's due to close from lack of funding.
Author: Aislinn Hunter
Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2014.
This novel contains three timelines, one of which, 2010, has an archivist, 34 year-old Jane Standen, who works for a London museum that's due to close from lack of funding.
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Devil Colony (2011) novel
Original Novel Title: The Devil Colony
: A Sigma Force Novel
Author: James Rollins
Publisher: William Morrow, 2011.
Rollins' novel The Devil Colony contains a typical mischaracterization of an archives as a museum. In this case, it is really inexcusable since he's profiling the United States National Archives which even has the word archives in its name. Yet he insists on calling it a museum, not once, but at least twice.
"Painter scrunched his brow. Why was Seichan sniffing around the National Archives? The museum was a storehouse of America's historical manuscripts and documents. ..." (p. 84)
Charpter 9 of Part 1 has some of the characters visiting the National Archives very late at night:
"Dr. Eric Heisman was one of the museum's [National Archives'] curators, specializing in Colonial American history." (p. 88)
And again on page 91 Dr. Heisman is referred to as a curator.
: A Sigma Force NovelAuthor: James Rollins
Publisher: William Morrow, 2011.
Rollins' novel The Devil Colony contains a typical mischaracterization of an archives as a museum. In this case, it is really inexcusable since he's profiling the United States National Archives which even has the word archives in its name. Yet he insists on calling it a museum, not once, but at least twice.
"Painter scrunched his brow. Why was Seichan sniffing around the National Archives? The museum was a storehouse of America's historical manuscripts and documents. ..." (p. 84)
Charpter 9 of Part 1 has some of the characters visiting the National Archives very late at night:
"Dr. Eric Heisman was one of the museum's [National Archives'] curators, specializing in Colonial American history." (p. 88)
And again on page 91 Dr. Heisman is referred to as a curator.
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