Picking your brains (again?!)

MarkEsq

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I did post this in the Sandbox and several of you had good ideas, but I know many folks from here don't check in there, and because you are all so devious/deviant, and also generous with your time and ideas, I wanted to ask for your help here, too. I hope I haven't violated any rules.... :)

So, my first novel involved a bookseller and the theft of a book, which contained a secret from many years ago.

I want my next (the sixth in the series) to involve books again. I plan to set it in the American Library in Paris, but I'm having a hard time coming up with original book-related plot ideas.

A secret hidden in a book... done that. A priceless book.... meh... nothing's grabbing me.

Books and murder, should be easy, right? Anyone have any suggestions they'd be willing to share?!

(For those who don't know, and as added info in case it helps, my MC is head of security at the US Embassy in Paris, a Texan by birth.)
 

Scribhneoir

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How about having someone willing to commit murder to get a particular book for the library's collection? Either some book s/he's obsessed with or that will add great prestige to the library or something like that.

Or maybe a rogue librarian who kills people s/he deems unworthy to access some special book in the library?
 

KokkieH

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The flipside of Scribhneoir's idea: someone who's willing to kill to get a rare book from the library to complete their personal collection.

The book contains, not a secret, but a document left inside by the last person who borrowed it (assuming this is a lending library), like a credit card receipt, which can be used to prove a person has cheated on their partner, is involved in a fraudulent business deal, help establish an alibi for a murder, etc.

I'll add more if I can think of any.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Hmmm, I just started writing a series of short stories with a protagonist who is primarily a dealer in rare and collectible books. I'm having trouble coming up with more ideas, too.
 

Marlys

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Here's an idea: according to their website, The American Library in Paris has in their Special Collections "materials donated by Olivia de Havilland." They don't identify what these are, but it would be possible for you to slip in some fictional letters, papers, or an unpublished journal of Olivia's. Since she traveled to Europe during WWII to support the troops, those could hold clues to missing art or jewels, war-era espionage, or all kinds of things. A dated diary entry that puts someone at a party when they were supposed to be somewhere else could be important, or some notes she scribbled in the margins of a book she was reading at the time.

Just one thought--if that doesn't appeal, take a look at other special collections that particular library has and see if something looks interesting.
 

BfloGal

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I suspect everything's been done. They key might be putting a new spin on it.

Just brainstorming:

Lori King's latest involved a priceless book of haiku that was a forgery.

Perhaps a rare manuscript reveals another crime, such as a book, song, or poem written by someone famous was plagiarized from an earlier obscure work.

Perhaps a book reveals some hidden truth long buried, or tells a story different from what history tells us. Or reveals an unpalatable truth about someone revered as a hero.

Or is a draft of a work passed off as a lost manuscript of a master, but was written more recently by an impostor--a forger of books, in a sense.

Or perhaps the book in question is the journal of a crackpot, but something is revealed incidentally--like a certain person was in a place that they claimed not to be. Or is wearing a necklace that they had reported stolen.
 

tarak

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Hm, he first thing that came to my mind was a copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare. Maybe the discovery of an unknown work that could prove/disprove authorship (was it Shakespeare or Francis Bacon)?

Or following on the heels of some other suggestions - maybe the discovery of the journal of someone famous that reveals he/she had involvement in a less-than-savory movement. Nazi-sympathizer seems too obvious, but something along those lines that would destroy public perception of that person.
 

Channy

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A series of murders (serial maybe?) that are solved through clues in a book? Or maybe a series of random books (either pen named by one person or spanning several others). One seems sort of coincidental at first in the first few chapters.. the second and third get too eerie and then all of a sudden MC is knee deep in twenty murders over 15 books.
 

Ari Meermans

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You're going to have a difficult time coming up with "original", Mark. Your own inimitable spin is what you're really after. Now, having said that, a thought came to mind: Hugo finds sensitive information that was only known to a handful of high-ranking personnel in a book he's been waiting for. Who left it there? For whom was it intended? What else may have been leaked? Who's willing to kill to keep him from finding out?
 

pdichellis

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Maybe something sinister is being smuggled across borders with historic books transported to/from the museum. Someone discovers this and is killed. Solving the murder requires uncovering the secret smuggling operation.

BfloGal's forgery and impostor ideas sound like fun directions too. Maybe some rare books in the museum are fakes, the result of a fraudulent scheme. Someone discovers this and is killed. Solving the murder requires uncovering the fakes and fraudulent scheme.

Tough assignment, good luck!
 

frimble3

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The Library was founded in the 1920's with a core collection of books sent over for the U.S. troops in WWI. So, I'd make it a historic problem: clue to an old mystery, or something donated/hidden then, that only has significance now.

A document (deed/patent/will) that was only a token gesture then, but the years have rendered valuable? A will scrawled on the back of a paperback, under fire, that gives the heirs property which, at the time was a shell-hole ('All my vast estates'...) and is now either vital for some sort of Euro-project, or something environmental, that someone is willing to kill to stop/save.
Plans for something that couldn't have been created with existing technology, but is now both viable, and a gold-mine?

Or, something to do with the Library rather than a book? A lot of famous people were involved with it, it had some brave directors, and, according to it's website, it's history is interesting in itself.

Ari Meermans is right, though, there are only so many ways to make a book the center of a mystery, it's what you do with the basic idea that matters.
 

cbenoi1

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A featured guest at a book signing event (ex: Salman Rushdie) causes security nightmares for Hugo. Then the guest falls on his face, dead. The library is locked down (a la Snake Eyes) and Hugo must discover the who, how, and why before the affair turns into a political fiasco.

GTI's latest Treasure Hunting game is taking the mobile gaming world by storm. Players rake up points by taking selfies with objects and people listed on the game web site. The BIC pen was a gimmie. So was the white mouse. Actress Jenny Caldwater got the scare of her life as a mob of paparazzi-would-be stalked her house. The one 'epic' achievement item is a rare book only found at the American Library in Paris. For the game addicted, there is a killing to be made.

-cb
 

T Robinson

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Several staff are scanning books that are eligible for Project Galileo. Staff member dies. Nothing noted. Another dies.MC notes only thing in common is the scanning project. Digs deeper, possible historical mystery with current implications (as others said up-thread).

Okay Mark, the rest is up to you. :)
 

Snowstorm

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Perhaps a mystery involving something other than a book/codex/manuscript? Bookstores [ETA: museums/old libraries] often have other items for sale, and a bookstore/old library that sells or has on loan predominantly very old books may have an artifact that accompanies a book might contain the clue.

- Perhaps a matched set of a very old book with a matching cradle.

- Perhaps the cradle has a built-in ink well and pen holder.

- Perhaps the pen holder contains the original writer's quill pen.

- Perhaps the original writer's quill pen was used to stab writer's mistress (or seducer) and local lore surrounding the trapped blood in the quill's feathers will confirm the act, thereby forever ruining said writer's reputation.

Dang, I should write this down myself!
 
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MarkEsq

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I knew I was right to post here, you guys are awesome. Fantastic ideas and I have a few dark shadows taking shape in my mind.

A man goes into a small reading room and locks the door. At the end of the day, his body is discovered in the locked room. A book is open on the table, but there's no way anyone else could have entered the room.

Now, I know how he dies... but I've not settled on who he is or why he's murdered. A locked-room mystery in a library.

Hmmm... if any others ideas spring to mind, let me know... And thanks so much!
 

sheadakota

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Perhaps a mystery within a mystery? You know how the man in the locked room dies. Open book on table- seems innocent enough until the ancient text is examined- after it is translated Hugo discovers that the book describes in detail how the man was killed. Down to the venue and the date. Kind of like a Nostradamus prediction. Now Hugo has a centuries old clue to unravel. And perhaps the man is only one of many dead men to come unless Hugo can figure out the why and the who behind it.

A little out there, granted but hey you wanted original- :)
 

Dave Williams

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The book is the key to a ciphertext?

An old but still useful method of enciphering a message is to use a book. Page 6, word 32: "run". Code: 6-32 or 0060032, etc.

The book is used as a "one-time pad" and requires a matching volume to decrypt the message.
 

Namatu

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I knew I was right to post here, you guys are awesome. Fantastic ideas and I have a few dark shadows taking shape in my mind.

A man goes into a small reading room and locks the door. At the end of the day, his body is discovered in the locked room. A book is open on the table, but there's no way anyone else could have entered the room.

Now, I know how he dies... but I've not settled on who he is or why he's murdered. A locked-room mystery in a library.

Hmmm... if any others ideas spring to mind, let me know... And thanks so much!
I like this, and Dave Williams' suggestion of a cipher text. The Voynich Manuscript might also give you some ideas. No one has ever been able to figure out what it is or what it says.
 

onesecondglance

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Perhaps the person who died is also a mystery - so no-one knows who he is or how he came to be in the library?

Or he appears totally ordinary - like just a member of staff who has every reason to be there - until the detective discovers a secret about them that changes the whole game...
 

GailD

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The library book is worth nothing.

It's merely the scribblings of some French aristocrat who wasn't quite in his right mind.

However, the microchip buried in the book's spine, detailing the smuggling routes of uranium-235 and plutonium-239 to certain middle-eastern countries (currently, or soon likely to be, in the grip of Islamic extremists) is priceless.

The West will do anything to get hold of that chip. Hugo receives a mysterious tip and begins investigating. But western 'powers' dare not let him find it first....

:Shrug:Best I could do.

ETA: Another thought. The chip could contain the details of extremists primed to commit atrocities in the West.
 
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TessB

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(sneaking in from the romance section because the question is so much fun...)

This is actually true:

There is a book in my local library which isn't a book at all -- it's a geocache waypoint. It's a hardcover book that's had pages glued together and a hole cut in the middle just large enough to hold one of those magnet key holder deals. Inside that is a note with clues for the next stage of a multi-stage geocache (basically a gps-driven scavenger hunt). Whoever placed the waypoint marker created a fake label for the back with a dewey decimal code on it and everything. It's something exceedingly boring -- life cycle of the trout or some such -- and it's on a back shelf, so unlikely to be taken out by accident.

The clue to find it from the last stage involves decoding the string of numbers which ends up being the dewey decimal marker for that specific book. The information inside the book, once you find the right one, makes you decode the next set of coordinates to send you to the next stage of the game.

Whoever placed the cache must either work at the library or have a friend/ally who works there who's made sure that the book doesn't get pulled off the shelves and thrown away.