The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard

Mind-Control Thriller Aimed at Fans of The Da Vinci Code

Jun 22, 2009

Danish author Mikkel Birkegaard's debut novel, a best-seller in his home country, is an unusual high-concept thriller in which books become weapons of telepathic power.

The story focuses on a mysterious sect of ‘Lectors’, people with the power to telepathically invade the thoughts of anyone reading or being read to.

These Lectors can transform the words being scanned by the reader into fantastic visions and sensations, turning any novel into the ultimate Sensurround experience. Or – if they misuse their abilities – they can manipulate the reader’s thoughts or even provoke their death.

Ancient Alexandria

Jon Campelli, a promising lawyer, inherits an antiquarian bookshop from his father in Copenhagen. He discovers it is an HQ for book lovers and readers who cultivate the Lectors’ powers, maintaining a tradition going back to the fabulous library of ancient Alexandria.

Having been estranged from his dead father, Jon now learns that Luca Campelli was a leading Lector. He experiences the mind-jolting power of the Lector when one of them, the beautiful Katherina, enhances his own reading of the novel Fahrenheit 451 (whose author, Ray Bradbury, wrote the dystopian classic partly because of his love of books and libraries, a devotion shared by this thriller).

Bibliophile Society

But something is rotten in this mysterious Bibliophile Society. The bookshop is firebombed and Jon learns that his father may have been murdered. There is a Shadow Organisation of corrupt Lectors twisting the minds of influential politicians and businessmen into compliance and thereby gaining influence over them.

Jon, Katherina and Luca’s old allies set out to expose and stop their far-reaching conspiracy.

It’s a supercharged yarn with some engaging ideas. However, there are two problems with it. The premise is extremely convoluted and the writing never sufficiently suspends our disbelief with a sense of wonder at the amazing events depicted.

So we learn that the Lectors are split into receivers (who invade and distort the mind of someone who is reading) and transmitters (who influence people they read to).

Transmitters and Receivers

And receivers cannot only see what people are reading but can influence it. Transmitters can influence some people more than others. The distance over which they operate varies. For some reason, one third of receivers are dyslexic. And on and on…

All this superpower exposition takes up the most of the opening half of the novel and is distracting, dull and just goes on for too long.

Dry Writing

The writing (in translation, of course) is dry and never sparks to life with insight or telling detail. The greatest writers in this genre, such as Stephen King, draw readers in by juxtaposing believable everyday characters with glimpses of things otherwordly.

Here it is hard to really empathise with the rather flat characters, Copenhagen is an atmosphere-free series of place names, and the dialogue is stilted at times – ‘Someone is up to something big,’ one character says.

Intrigue and Urgency

However, Birkegaard is finally able to allow his thriller to let rip 200 pages in when Jon is ‘activated’ at a ‘seance’ and emerges as the Society’s most forceful Lector. Then the action shifts abroad and generates the intrigue and urgency lacking in the first half.

Birkegaard, who lives in Copenhagen and apparently had the usual struggle lasting several years to get published, has finally seen his debut book sell well in Denmark, and The Library of Shadows has been published in 17 languages.

Da Vinci Code

It is being marketed at fans of The Da Vinci Code, and perhaps followers of high-concept TV shows, such as Heroes, may loose themselves in the distinctive mystery the author conjures up here.

The copyright of the article The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard in Thriller Fiction is owned by Robin Jarossi. Permission to republish The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.