The Archivist

Critics Review

• “Sideways writer Rex Pickett always leaves us wanting more and with The Archivist he delivers. Immersive, wonderful, absorbing, he draws the reader into a geologically nuanced tragic romance that ramifies into something inexpressibly transcendent.”

  James Phelan, author of Patriot Act

• “An archives encapsulates an overlapping set of stories. Each of these tells one thread of a narrative, and the researcher pieces these together to create a cohesive approximation of the past. Rex Pickett, in his novel The Archivist, creates a fictional archives, one populated by archivists who act and speak as real archivists do, and his multifoliate story replicates the process of archival research. The reader accumulates the novel’s multiple streams of action, wondering where the novel will turn next, always working toward a final resolution that reveals itself with surprising force.”

  Geof Huth, chief records officer, NY State Unified Court System

• “Suspenseful and haunting, The Archivist carried me away. Rex Pickett’s noir novel of obsessive passion, deadly secrets, and the power of creativity unrolls with relentless, tidal force. Join heroine Emily Snow and take a journey into the dark archives. Enthralling.”

  Meg Gardiner, author of the UNSUB series

• “Rex Pickett’s beautifully written and tautly structured novel is a slow burn that builds on every page to its searing, emotional conclusion—along the way the author and his characters descend into the dark chasm that often separates art from truth, and sometimes does not.”

  Charlie Lovett, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman's Tale and Escaping Dreamland

• “Pickett’s colorful prose and dramatic turns of phrase will keep you engaged as you become drawn into the mystery of Nadia’s death.”

  Washington Independent Review of Books

• “The Archivist is a powerfully engrossing mystery/thriller by author Rex Pickett. A departure from the Sideways trilogy, Pickett gracefully draws the reader into a web of love, obsession, paranoia, betrayal, and the written word. The plot draws the reader in subtly, and shortly thereafter, they are as consumed as Emily in discovering a dark reality.”

  San Francisco Book Review

• “The Archivist is one of those novels that is so original and unique that it is hard to put down. Any historian, librarian, or book lover will be pulled in from the first page. Rex Pickett has written a gorgeous tale…This all-consuming novel was a fascinating delve into the dark side of academia.”

  Mystery and Suspense

• “Never underestimate an archivist. Rex Pickett’s The Archivist is a haunting and sometimes heartbreaking exploration of the truths and power records hold, the insidiousness of their erasure and destruction, and the redemption that can be found in their restoration and preservation. It captures the archival thrill of the hunt, the pursuit of all the pieces that will tell a story, no matter what the consequences. In this shattering thriller, Pickett’s Emily Snow shows that archivists are detectives, and relentless ones, at that. The Archivist surfaces the hidden and often ignored labor of the archival profession. Pickett captures the joys, hazards, and annoyances of being an archivist and renders a closely observed depiction of the politics and pecking orders of libraries, special collections, and archives. Archivists are at turns eavesdroppers and voyeurs, sometimes bonded to their subjects. Although often conflicted by competing obligations, they are driven by a singular mission to ensure that truths are preserved.”

  Caryn Radick, digital archivist, Rutgers University

• “As deeply, disturbingly immersive as the archive at its heart.”

  Kirkus Reviews

• “Take a deep dive in the dark archives with intrepid, independent, indefatigable project archivist Emily Snow as she excavates deadly secrets in Pickett’s exhilarating debut literary thriller. With deftly woven narrative threads and intrigue worthy of Hitchcock, The Archivist is immersive and rewarding. Pickett does for university archives what Raymond Chandler did for LA.”

  Janet Somerville, author of Yours for Probably Always

• “Road trip! Famously translated to the screen by Alexander Payne, Sideways deserves to be read and relished. Dour Miles and priapic Jack are the Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty of this contemporary picaresque which is by turns hilarious, poignant, and intoxicating.”

  Jay McInerney, LitHub, on Sideways