狐狸视频

Calling it a 'natural fit,' U of T librarian opts for familiar setting in debut mystery novel

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Eva鈥檚 Jurczyk, co-ordinator of humanities collections at Robarts Library, picked a university library as the setting for her novel The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections because it's a world she knows well (photo courtesy of Jurczyk)

For readers with ties to the 狐狸视频, Eva Jurczyk鈥檚 debut mystery novel The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections offers more than a whodunnit to solve.

In addition to figuring out who is responsible for the precious manuscripts going missing from a major university鈥檚 library, readers can also try to guess where she might have drawn inspiration from her day job at U of T.

Was that rare book librarian who works on a campus in downtown Toronto really once a spy? Is a senior administrator really training for an iron man competition in real life? And would it truly be that easy to replace a precious manuscript with a forgery while surrounded by scholars and subject matter experts?

Jurczyk, who is the co-ordinator of humanities collections at Robarts Library, says she was told a that a previous unpublished novel was 鈥溾榯oo quiet,鈥 which was probably a really polite way of saying it was too boring.鈥 So the alumna of the Faculty of Information set about looking for an environment and a plot line that would keep readers turning the pages.

She settled on the world of libraries 鈥 which is both popular among book readers and a subject she knows intimately 鈥 and a mystery format.

""While she doesn鈥檛 work in rare books, she had been a student assistant at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library while completing her master鈥檚 degree in library and information science. And as someone who had always been interested in the tales of art forgery and rare book theft regularly as chronicled by magazines like The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, Jurczyk says she thought that such a plot would be a 鈥渘atural fit鈥 if she was going to use a library setting.

She researched the topic systematically to understand both the type of person who would steal rare books and the manuscripts themselves.

鈥淭he thieves are mostly men 鈥 often single men. And it鈥檚 almost always people on the inside. There鈥檚 the occasional 鈥榮mash and grab鈥 job, but it鈥檚 rare. It鈥檚 almost never for money because these are things that are incredibly hard to resell. It鈥檚 usually somebody who鈥檚 just deeply passionate about this material and wants to keep it for himself,鈥 says Jurczyk.

鈥淥ften, when the police do catch these people, they find the work has just been in someone鈥檚 apartment, under their bed or in their filing cabinet, and they just wanted it near them. And so that鈥檚 who steals it 鈥 just somebody who loves the work so much that they need to be near it.鈥

Those are exactly the type of people who surround Jurczyk鈥檚 fictional 60-something librarian sleuth Liesl Weiss, who, after decades in a background role, suddenly finds herself promoted into the job of her charismatic boss when he has a stroke. The mystery she needs to solve: Which one of her quirky colleagues is responsible for the missing manuscripts, a classic Agatha Christie-style plot.

The book, published in January, has proven a success so far. The virtual book tour drew plenty of readers and Jurczyk was thrilled to see her debut novel , a rare honour. 鈥淚t was not only that they reviewed it, but they were very kind about it, which was a dream come true,鈥 says Jurczyk, who has almost finished a non-mystery second novel.

As for the mystery of how many of the characters come from real life, the short answer is bits and pieces. Yes, Jurczyk has worked with vain colleagues and those who used Discmans long past their sell-by date. She 鈥渞atcheted up these small characteristics鈥 in her novel, but, no, she鈥檚 never reported to a bicycle helmet-toting university executive who was training for an iron man competition and flexed his calf muscles in meetings.

鈥淚 can also say with a lot of confidence that I did not ever work with anyone that was stealing priceless manuscripts,鈥 she says, a reminder to those who would believe otherwise that her book is indeed, as it鈥檚 billed, a work of fiction.

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