From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Peng Shepherd’s The Cartographers, which releases on March 15th 2022.
Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field, and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.
But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable, and also exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence… because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.
But why?
To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret, and discover the true power that lies in maps…
A long time ago, the room in which Nell was now standing had been her favorite place in the whole city. The public areas of the New York Public Library were breathtaking—she could not deny the almost otherworldly beauty of the rich wood-paneled walls, the gleaming chandeliers overhead, and the old windows that loomed from floor to ceiling—but it was the simple, endless archives of the Map Division that had secretly kept her heart. They contained tens of thousands of books and atlases, and almost half a million sheet maps, in their vast stores. If Nell had ever believed in magic, here would have been the place where she would have gone looking for it.
Even now, as she ran her hands over the back of her father’s leather office chair and breathed in the musty scent of ancient paper and wood, it was hard not to imagine that there could be some secret tucked between the pages of an unassuming text. Long before they’d stopped speaking to each other, when he’d brought her to work with him in her youth, he had set her on its well-worn cushion and promised her in his deep, solemn voice that this office would be hers one day.
She had believed him.
“Heart attack,” the officer said, to draw Nell’s attention back. “He probably went fast.”
“Age catches up to us all, unfortunately,” his partner added.
“I just . . .” Nell sighed. Despite everything—the chasm between her and her father, the damage they’d both done to each other—tears were threatening. She pinched the bridge of her nose to stop them from falling.
“Why don’t we give her a minute?” Swann suggested to Lieutenant Cabe and his partner, who politely withdrew to the other side of the room. “Are you all right, my dear?” he asked once they were alone.
“Yes,” she said. She didn’t know.
“Let me get you a tissue.” He patted her shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
Nell smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
The library’s back offices swirled quietly around her as she sat huddled on the edge of her father’s desk, next to the mess strewn across it. Researchers were finally getting to work in their cubicles, turning on their computers and shuffling through their mail. And past the staff door, patrons were browsing the stacks and choosing seats at reading tables, clicking on lamps and pulling out notebooks and flipping pages. Children were running through aisles and sneaking around the lobby. Taxis were pulling up and dropping off passengers outside. Nell tried to think about all of it out there, and nothing in here.
Gradually, she realized her hand was resting on the corner of the desk where the hidden lock was.
Ever dramatic, her father long ago had a secret compartment built into his desk that only he, she, and perhaps Swann knew about. He kept especially valuable maps inside while working on them for security’s sake, he’d said, even though the NYPL had never been robbed in the history of its existence. But when Nell was young, and he’d been a slightly gentler version of himself, he had also hidden little notes to her there as well, and she would reply with childish drawings of maps she’d copied or created herself.
All she had to do was push her index finger forward a little bit. The dullest, quietest thud told her the compartment had opened.
Slowly, without moving anything but her hand, she reached inside.
There was just one thing there this time: a slim, leather-bound shape. Not a book, but a leather portfolio. She moved her fingers another subtle inch, feeling the familiar texture.
It was the leather portfolio, she was certain. The one that had belonged to her mother before she’d died, and Nell’s father had taken to using it as a way to remember her.
As a child, the portfolio had held almost magical power to Nell. She used to watch her father slip it into and out of his briefcase when he went to the library or came home in the evening, trying to imagine what beautiful work could lay inside that time. There were other maps he brought home too, but those came in cheap plastic sleeves or cardboard folders. Only the most valuable, the most rare, of maps were carried in the leather portfolio. Nell often wondered at all of the priceless maps she must have laid eyes on as a small girl that she couldn’t even remember now. Long after she and her father had stopped talking, she had sometimes thought of the portfolio, about the things he still carried inside it.
And now here it was. Hidden in the mess.
Lieutenant Cabe and his partner were still by the door of the office, the two of them giving instructions to the rest of the employees in the corridor, and Swann was over at the bookcase, plucking tissues gently out of a box to bring back to Nell.
For a split second, no one was looking at her.
Before she could think about what a huge mistake it would be, how much trouble it could get her into, Nell slipped the portfolio out from the compartment and into her tote bag in one smooth motion and returned her hand to the top of the desk.
