Page LogoThe Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and MuseumsPage Logo

openbook imageNOVELS, STORIES AND THEIR AUTHORSopenbook image

Last modified: January 22, 2006

Compiled by David Mattison; © 1996-2006. Text submissions copyrighted by their respective authors. Search for updates by using the Find function of your Web browser. The date a new title or group of titles are entered is in this pattern: "Date added: 2004-10-17."

Looking for that obscure reference you think you remember reading about on The Fictional World of Archives? Try the Site Search (FreeFind). Looking for more interesting reading, try The Fiction of Photography Weblog by David Mattison (suspended as of 2004-06).

Help support the recovery of Tulane University in New Orleans by patronizing these online bookstores.


Introduction

Fictional archives in written form extend back centuries to at least the Graeco-Roman era. Classicist Mary Lefkowitz in Not Out of Africa (1996) recounts a popular tradition among the Greek authors responsible for the "so-called Hermetica or discourses of Hermes" (Hermes Trismegistos or Trismegistus, meaning Hermes the Thrice-great):

... the Greek authors were following the standard conventions of a type of historical fiction that was popular in antiquity among both the Greeks and the Hebrews. In order to make their work seem more impressive, ancient writers concealed their real names and pretended to be famous historical figures and to have been living in earlier times. Often ancient writers of historical fiction claim to have found a hidden document, or to have translated a text from an ancient language. The story of the "discovery" of the discourses of Hermes follows that established pattern. In the fourth century Iamblichus [ca. 250-326 A.D.] explains that an otherwise unknown "prophet" Bitys had found Hermes' teaching inscribed in hieroglyphics in the inner sanctuary of the temple at Sais and translated (!) them for "king Ammon," by whom he meant the god Amun or Amun-Re. ... (p. 101)

Lefkowitz goes on to recount how the mid-18th century French novel Life of Sethos, based on imaginary Egyptian archives, came to influence the development of European and Caribbean Freemasonry.

Modern novels set in ancient Egypt, the period dating from between 3,100 B.C. to at least 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great conquered or was invited to rule Egypt, often feature a scribe, or the pharaoh's vizier, or some aspect of Egyptian recordkeeping that was at least if not more ubiquitous then that it is in today's world. Somewhat equivalent to a prime minister, the vizier also had charge of archival records. So today's novels set in Egypt may refer to scribes who are essentially records managers or archivists, as well as talk about the kind of work they do to help the ancient Egyptian bureaucracy lurch along.

Robert Ludlum is likely the author one thinks of in relation to plots turning on the archival record. Peter Gillis's 1979-80 essay on archives in espionage fiction uses several examples from Ludlum's novels. A more recent peer-reviewed scholarly analysis of fictional archivists is Arlene B. Schmuland's "The Archival Image in Fiction: An Analysis and Annotated Bibliography" (American Archivist) based on her M.A. thesis (August 1997). The titles listed in Schmuland's bibliography are incorporated into the title list on this site.


Icons

Canadian Authors

Archives and Manuscripts

Art and Artists

Museums

Maple Leaf - Canadian title

Scroll icon Palette icon

 Museum icon


  1. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleAct of God by Charles Templeton (1977)
  2. After Many a Summer by Aldous Huxley (1939)
  3. Alamo House: Women Without Men, Men Without Brains by Sarah Bird (1986)
  4. The Alienist by Caleb Carr (1994)
  5. All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
  6. Scroll iconAll the Names by José Saramago (2000); highly recommended
  7. Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin (1985)
  8. Amnesia: A Novel by Douglas Cooper (1992)
  9. Scroll iconAngels and Demons by Dan Brown (2001). See also The Da Vinci Code (2003).
  10. Palette icon The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews (2005)
  11. Scroll iconArchangel by Robert Harris (1998)
  12. The Archivist by Gill Alderman (1989)
  13. Scroll iconThe Archivist by Martha Cooley (1998)
  14. Scroll iconArea 51 by Robert Doherty (1997)
  15. Artemisia by Alexandra Lapierre (2000)
  16. Maple Leaf - Canadian title Palette icon The Art of Deception by Sergio Kokis ; translated by W. Donald Wilson (2002; originally published in French in 1997 under the title L'art du maquillage).
  17. "The Aspern Papers" by Henry James (The Aspern Papers, 1888)
  18. The Assassini by Thomas Gifford (1990)
  19. Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (1993)
  20. Palette icon The Audubon Quartet by Ray Sipherd (1998), "a Jonathan Wilder mystery"
  21. Scroll icon"Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" by Herman Melville (1853)
  22. Maple Leaf - Canadian title Palette icon Be Quiet by Margaret Hollingsworth (2004) is about the great Canadian artist Emily Carr (1871-1945).
  23. Maple Leaf - Canadian title Bear: A Novel by Marion Engel (1976)
  24. Palette icon Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Artful Murder: Further Adventures of the American Agent in London by Robert Lee Hall (1994)
  25. Beyond the Fall of Night by Gregory Benford and Arthur C. Clarke (1990)
  26. Palette icon The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (2003)
  27. Scroll iconThe Blair Witch Project: A Dossier by Dave Stern (1999)
  28. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1852)
  29. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleScroll iconThe Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000)
  30. Palette icon The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson (2003)
  31. The Blood of the Covenant: A Novel of the Vampire by Brent Monahan (1995)
  32. Palette iconThe Body Artist by Don DeLillo (2001)
  33. The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver (1997)
  34. Palette icon  Museum icon The Bone Vault by Linda Fairstein (2003)
  35. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan (2001)
  36. The Book of the Common Dread by Brent Monahan (1993)
  37. Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters (1973)
  38. Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros (1996)
  39. Museum iconThe British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge (1967)
  40. Bundori: A Novel of Japan by Laura Joh Rowland (1996)
  41. The Bunyip Archives by James E. Schutte (1992)
  42. A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville (1992)
  43. Canopus in Argos: Archives (series title) by Doris Lessing (1979-1983)
  44. Scroll icon The Canterbury Papers: A Novel of Suspense by Judith Healey (2003)
  45. Scroll iconA Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1960)
  46. Carnevale by M.R. Lovric (2001)
  47. The Case of the Missing Brontë by Robert Barnard (1983)
  48. Centaur Aisle by Piers Anthony (1981)
  49. Palette icon Chasing Cézanne by Peter Mayle (1997)
  50. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett; illustrated by Brett Helquist (2004); youth fiction, which Amazon.com compares as "The Da Vinci Code for kids."
  51. Chatterton by Peter Ackroyd (1987)
  52. The Choir by Joanna Trollope (1988)
  53. City of the Horizon by Anton Gill (1991)
  54. Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman (1990)
  55. The Crown of Columbus by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris (1981)
  56. Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell (1993)
  57. Scroll icon  Museum icon  Palette icon The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003). This book, despite being hammered by critics for its writing, has attained a cult status with electronic and print pro-, anti- and guides to the Da Vinci Code. Lewis Perdue published a similarly titled novel in 1983, then a second one about Mary Magdalene in 2000. Brown's novel, as Perdue points out on his Ideaworx site, bears some similarities in character and plot development to these two novels. Having read Perdue's highly forgettable The Da Vinci Legacy, I can't say I'm convinced Perdue's plagarism case would stand up in court. See also The Novels of Lewis Purdue and Angels and Demons.
  58. The Dancing Men by Duncan Kyle (1985)
  59. The Dark Clue by James Wilson (2001)
  60. Scroll icon The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton (2005). Some excellent scenes in the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University.
  61. The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile by Bartholomew Gill (1995)
  62. Palette icon Death of an Old Master: A Lord Francis Powerscourt Mystery by David Dickinson (2004)
  63. The deMaury Papers by Isabelle Holland (1977)
  64. The Deryni Archives by Katherine Kurtz (1986)
  65. The Diary of Emily Dickinson by Jamie Fuller (1993)
  66. The Doctor and the Dead Man's Chest by Robin Hathaway (2001)
  67. The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustache (1930)
  68. The Dossier by Pierre Salinger and Leonard Gross (1984)
  69. Le Dossier 51 by Gilles Perrault (1969; English translation: Dossier 51, 1971)
  70. The Dracula Archives by Raymond Rudorff (1971)
  71. Dressed to Die: A Lindsay Chamberlain Novel by Beverly Connor (1998)
  72. The Dune Novels by Frank Herbert (Chapterhouse: Dune, 1985; God Emperor of Dune, 1981; Heretics of Dune, 1984)
  73. Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke (1955)
  74. Scroll iconThe Einstein Papers by Craig Dirgo (1999)
  75. Palette iconThe English Assassin by Daniel Silva (2002)
  76. Estate of Mind: A Den of Antiquity Mystery by Tamar Myers (1999)
  77. Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups by Robert Anton Wilson, with Miriam Joan Hill (1998) is a work of non-fiction documenting conspiracies, many of which bear the hallmark of overworked and underpaid imaginations.
  78. Ex Libris by Ross King (1998)
  79. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleScroll icon The Expedition by Clayton Bailey (2003)
  80. The Face on the Wall: A Homer Kelly Mystery by Jane Langton (1998)
  81. Faith by Len Deighton (1994)
  82. The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman (2002)
  83. Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992)
  84. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe File on Arthur Moss by Douglas Fetherling (1994)
  85. The Final Encyclopedia by Gordon R. Dickson (1984)
  86. The First Horseman by John Case (1998)
  87. Fixes by Eugene Kennedy (1989)
  88. The Flashman Novels by George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman and the Dragon, 1986; Flashman and the Mountain of Light, 1991; Flashman and the Redskins, 1982)
  89. Palette iconFlesh Tones by M.J. Rose (2002)
  90. Flights of Love: Stories by Bernhard Schlink (2001)
  91. The Fly on the Wall by Tony Hillerman (1971)
  92. Footsucker by Geoff Nicholson (1995)
  93. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleFor Art's Sake: A Novel by W.O. Mitchell (1992)
  94. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1975)
  95. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (1989)
  96. The Foundation Novels by Isaac Asimov and Friends
  97. The Freshour Cylinders by Speer Morgan (1998)
  98. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (1967)
  99. The General In His Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (1990) contains a memorable character, Manuela Sáenz (Mrs. James Thorne), one of the many lovers of General José de San Martín, whom he "named her curator of his archives in order to keep her near him." (p. 151)
  100. The Genesis Code by John Case (1997)
  101. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleScroll icon Gerard Keegan's Famine Diary: Journey to a New World by James J. Mangan (1991; reprint of The Voyage of the Naparima by James J. Mangan, 1982, Quebec, Carraig Books; originally published as Gleaner Tales, Volume 2: Summer of Sorrow, Abner's Device and Other Stories by Robert Sellar, Huntingdon, Quebec, 1895)
  102. Gideon by Russell Andrews (1999)
  103. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (2000) depicts the life of the woman in Vermeer's painting.
  104. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Glace Bay Miners' Museum by Sheldon Currie (1979) on which the movie Margaret's Museum is based and the stage play of the same name
  105. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Glace Bay Miners' Museum: A Play Based on the Novel by Sheldon Currie by Wendy Lill (1996)
  106. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (1974)
  107. The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1909)
  108. Hannibal by Thomas Harris (1999)
  109. The Hastings Conspiracy by Alfred Coppel (1980)
  110. Maple Leaf - Canadian title Scroll iconThe Hatbox Letters: A Novel by Beth Powning (2004)
  111. The Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amour (1987)
  112. Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith (1999)
  113. Hemingway's Notebook by Bill Granger (1986)
  114. The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry (1994)
  115. Scroll icon The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building by H.B. Creswell (1929; reprint, 2000)
  116. Honor Among Thieves by Jeffrey Archer (1993)
  117. The House of Dr. Dee by Peter Ackroyd (1993)
  118. Huckleberry Fiend by Julie Smith (1987)
  119. I Been There Before by David Carkeet (1985)
  120. Palette icon Museum icon  The Icon by Neil Olson (2005)
  121. Imzadi by Peter David (1992)
  122. Scroll iconIn the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches (2002)
  123. Palette icon Scroll iconThe Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert (2004)
  124. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead (1999)
  125. Invitation to a Funeral by Molly Brown (1995) features the 17th century English female author Aphra Behn as a detective and a dangerous, secret document she discovers.
  126. Italian Fever by Valerie Martin (1999)
  127. Jackie by Josie by Caroline Preston (1997)
  128. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleJoshua Then & Now: A Novel by Mordecai Richler (1980)
  129. The Journal of Mrs Pepys: Portrait of a Marriage by Sara George (1998)
  130. Juan in America by Eric Linklater (1931)
  131. The Judgment Day Archives by Andre Moskovit (1988)
  132. Just Cause by John Katzenbach (1992)
  133. King and Goddess by Judith Tarr (1996)
  134. The L.A. Quartet by James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, 1987; The Big Nowhere, 1988; L.A. Confidential, 1990; White Jazz, 1992)
  135. The Lampitt Papers by A.N. Wilson (Hearing Voices, v. 4, 1996)
  136. The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett (1998)
  137. The Late George Apley: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir by John P. Marquand (1937)
  138. The Last Pumpkin Paper by Bob Oeste (1996)
  139. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
  140. The Legacy by Stephen Frey (1998)
  141. Legends: Tales from the Eternal Archives edited by Margaret Weis (1999)
  142. Lemprière's Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk (1991)
  143. Museum icon The Leto Bundle by Marina Warner (2001)
  144. Scroll icon Liars & Thieves by Stephen Coonts (2004)
  145. Liberty Falling by Nevada Barr (1999) is set on Ellis Island National Monument, New York
  146. Life of Sethos by Abbé Jean Terrasson (1731)
  147. The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter (2000)
  148. Look At Me by Anita Brookner (1983)
  149. Loot by Aaron Elkins (1999)
  150. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)
  151. The Lost Earth Saga (Series) by James Axler (1999-)
  152. The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng by Thomas Orton (1999)
  153. The Magic Circle by Katherine Neville (1998); visit the official Web site at Random House
  154. Making History by Stephen Fry (1997)
  155. Malice in Miniature: A Dorothy Martin Mystery by Jeanne M. Dams (1998) features the Doll House Museum in the fictional Brocklesby Hall, Sherebury, England.
  156. The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa by Martin Page (1984)
  157. The Master Painter by Edwin Mullins (1989)
  158. Scroll icon Museum icon Michelangelo's Notebook by Paul Christopher (2005). Date added: 2006-01-22.
  159. Miriam Premiere by Francine Noel (1987)
  160. Palette icon Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers (2001). Date added: 2004-10-17.
  161. Scroll icon Museum iconMrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife by Marele Day (2002) looks at Elizabeth (Mrs. James) Cook's world through objects and letters she received from her famous oceangoing husband. An appendix, "Where Are They Now?", describes the present locations of the objects described in the various chapters.
  162. Murder at Monticello, or, Old Sins by Rita Mae Brown (1994)
  163. Museum icon Murder in the Museum by Simon Brett (2003). Series: The Fethering Mysteries.
  164. Scroll icon Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda S. Robinson (1994)
  165. Murdercon by Richard Purtill (1982)
  166. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleMuseum iconThe Museum Guard by Howard Norman (1998)
  167. Museum iconMuseums and Women by John Updike (short stories, 1972)
  168. My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway (1998)
  169. My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane (1984)
  170. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980, 1983)
  171. The Nautical Chart by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (2001)
  172. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleNeuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
  173. Night Mare by Piers Anthony (1982)
  174. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
  175. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleNorth with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames by John Wilson (1999)
  176. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleScroll icon Palette icon The Novels of Barbara Hodgson (The Tattooed Map, 1995; The Sensualist: A Mystery, 1998; Hippolyte's Island: An Illustrated Novel, 2001; The Lives of Shadows: An Illustrated Novel, 2004)
  177. The Novels of Bill Napier (Revelation, 2000; Shattered Icon, 2003).
  178. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Novels of Carol Shields (Small Ceremonies, 1976; The Stone Diaries, 1995; Swann: A Mystery, 1987)
  179. The Novels of Carola Dunn (Museum icon Rattle His Bones: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, 2000 [set in the Natural History Museum, London, in 1923]; Styx and Stones: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, 1999 [poison pen letters]).
  180. The Novels of Carole Nelson Douglas (Chapel Noir: An Irene Adler Novel, 2001).
  181. The Novels of Dennis Wheatley and J.G. Links (Murder Off Miami, 1936; reprinted 1979; Who Killed Robert Prentice?, 1937; reprinted 1980; The Malinsay Massacre, 1938; reprinted 1981; Herewith the Clues, 1939; reprinted 1982). Novelty mysteries featuring reproductions of crime evidence, including newspapers, letters and telegrams, matchsticks, cigarette butts, a bullet and hair.
  182. The Novels of Derek Wilson (The Borgia Chalice, 1996; The Carmargue Brotherhood; The Dresden Text, 1995; The Hellfire Papers; The Triarchs; these mystery-thrillers all involve British art dealer Tim Lacy)
  183. The Novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Museum icon Relic, 1995; Reliquary, 1997; Thunderhead, 1999; The Ice Limit, 2000; Museum icon The Cabinet of Curiosities, 2002; Brimstone, 2004, featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, with a brief scene in the family and business archives of an Italian pensione housed in a former palazzo, p. 346)
  184. The Novels of E.L. Doctorow (Welcome to Hard Times, 1960; City of God, 2000)
  185. The Novels of Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Nothing Sacred, 1991; Phantom Banjo, 1991; The Unicorn Creed, 1983)
  186. The Novels of Elizabeth Peters (Lord of the Silent, 2001).
  187. The Novels of Iain Pears: Art History Mystery Series featuring Jonathan Argyll (The Raphael Affair, 1992; The Titian Committee, 1993; The Bernini Bust, 1994; The Last Judgement, 1996; Giotto's Hand, 1997; Death and Restoration, 1998; The Immaculate Deception, 2000; The Last Judgement, 2001, c1993).
  188. The Novels of Irving Wallace (The Word, 1972; The R Document, 1976)
  189. The Novels of Harold Schechter (Nevermore, 1999; The Hum Bug, 2001)
  190. The Novels of Joanne Dobson (The Northbury Papers, November 1998; The Raven and the Nightingale: A Modern Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe, November 1999) feature an English literature professor, Karen Pelletier, who in these two novels solves crimes revolving around literary papers and previously lost historical records.
  191. The Novels of John Le Carré (A Small Town in Germany, 1968; The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, 1964; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 1974)
  192. The Novels of Jonathan Santlofer (these novels feature Kate McKinnon, a New York City art historian who also happens to be a former police officer and married to lawyer; the author is himself "an internationally recognized artist" according to the dustjacket of his second McKinnon novel Palette icon: The Death Artist, 2002; Color Blind, 2004)
  193. The Novels of Laura Childs: Scroll icon The Scrapbooking Mysteries Series (Keepsake Crimes, May 2003; Photo Finished, January 2004; Bound for Murder, November 2004).
  194. The Novels of Lewis Perdue (Palette icon Scroll icon The Da Vinci Legacy, 1983, reprint, 2004;  Palette icon Scroll icon Daughter of God, 2000; Scroll icon The Linz Testament, 1988 [reproduction ed.])
  195. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Novels of Lyn Hamilton (Archaeological Mystery series: Museum icon The Magyar Venus, 2004)
  196. The Novels of Margaret Truman (Scroll icon Murder at the FBI, 1992 [reissue]; Scroll icon Murder at the Library of Congress, 1999; Palette icon Murder at the National Gallery, 1996; Museum icon Murder in the Smithsonian, 1990 [reissue])
  197. The Novels of Michael Crichton (Airframe, 1996; Disclosure, 1994; Sphere, 1987; Timeline, 1999)
  198. The Novels of Minette Walters (The Breaker, 1998, uses simulated police records; The Shape of Snakes , 2000, includes photographs and recreated official records and private papers)
  199. The Novels of Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, 1996; Message in a Bottle, 1998)
  200. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Novels of Nick Bantock (Capolan: Travels of a Vagabond Country, 1997; Scroll icon The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, 1994; Museum icon Palette icon The Venetian's Wife: A Strangely Sensual Tale of a Renaissance Explorer, a Computer, and a Metamorphosis, 1996;  Palette iconThe Forgetting Room: A Fiction, 1997; Museum icon The Museum at Purgatory, 1999; Scroll icon The Gryphon, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Is Rediscovered, 2001; Scroll icon Alexandria, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Unfolds, 2002; Scroll icon The Morning Star, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Is Illuminated, 2003)
  201. Scroll icon The Novels of Ralph M. McInerny (The Mysteries at the University of Notre Dame Series; highly recommended for depictions of a university archives)
  202. Scroll icon The Novels of Robert Ludlum
  203. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Novels of Robertson Davies (The Lyre of Orpheus, 1988; Murther and Walking Spirits, 1991; The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks, 1986; The Rebel Angels, 1981)
  204. The Novels of Sally S. Wright
  205. The Novels of Sharon Shinn (The Alleluia Files, 1999; Archangel, 1996; Jovah's Angel, 1997)
  206. The Novels of Simon Goodenough (A Study in Scarlet: A Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery, 1983; The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Murder Mystery, 1984). Published by the same British company that reissued the forensic evidence mysteries by Dennis Wheatley and J.G. Links, these recreations also feature reproductions of criminal evidence.
  207. The Novels of Steve Erickson
  208. Palette icon The Novels of Susan Vreeland (The Forest Lover, 2004, is about the great Canadian artist Emily Carr (1871-1945); Girl in Hyacinth Blue, 1999, set in the United States, is about a previously unknown Vermeer painting;  The Passion of Artemisia, 2002, is about the post-Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi).
  209. Palette icon The Novels of Thomas Swan (The Da Vinci Deception, 1990; The Cezanne Chase, 1997; The Final Faberge: A Novel of Suspense, 1999)
  210. Scroll icon The Novels of Veronica Stallwood (Oxord Exit, 1994; Oxford Shadows, 2000)
  211. Scroll icon The Novels of William J. Palmer (The Detective and Mr. Dickens: Being an Account of the MacBeth Murders and the Strange Events Surrounding Them, 1990; The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens: An Account of the Strange Events of the Medusa Murders, 1992; The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Affair of the Feminist Phantom, 1997; The Dons and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot, 2000); mysteries and thrillers all based on secret (and just as fictional) journals attributed to Charles Dickens' real-life friend Wilkie Collins.
  212. The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth (1972)
  213. Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (2005); for young adults and the young at heart, this is the first of a trilogy titled The Guild of Specialists; from the publisher's description on Amazon.com: "Featuring a unique "faux-journal" format and archival elements including elaborate diagrams and maps, vintage photos and illustrations, documents with stamps, seals, and watermarks, four full-color gatefolds, and extensive appendices and notes."
  214. Original Sin by P.D. James (1994)
  215. "The Originist" (in Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card) by Orson Scott Card (1990)
  216. Other People's Mail: An Anthology of Letter Stories edited with an introduction by Gail Pool (2000)
  217. Museum icon Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll (1992; June 2005 paperback reprint)
  218. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card (1996)
  219. Palette icon The Pegasus Secret by Gregg Loomis (2005)
  220. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1911)
  221. The Phoenix Lottery by Allan Stratton (2000)
  222. Picture Maker by Penina Keen Spinka (2001)
  223. Scroll icon Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt (1990)
  224. The Prayer of the Bone by Paul Bryers (1998)
  225. The Princess and the Barbarian by Betina Krahn (1993)
  226. Provenance by Frank McDonald (1979)
  227. Palette icon Quattrocento by James McKean (August 2002)
  228. The Quiet Pools by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1990)
  229. Reaching Tin River by Thea Astley (1990)
  230. The Reconstruction by Claudia Casper (1996)
  231. The Repairman Jack Novels by F. Paul Wilson (The Tomb, 1984; Legacies, 1998; Conspiracies, 2000; All the Rage, 2000); visit the official Web site
  232. Republic of Dreams: A Reverie by G. Garfield Crimmins (1998)
  233. Scroll icon Retribution: A Lew Fonesca Novel by Stuart M. Kaminsky (2001)
  234. The Revisionist by Helen Schulman (1999)
  235. Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg (2003) is an alternate history in which the Roman Empire was never overthrown; the prologue begins in an archives.
  236. The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood (1987)
  237. Museum icon Palette icon  Scroll icon The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason (2004). Date added: 2004-10-11.
  238. A Sandler Inquiry by Noel Hynd (1977)
  239. A Secret History of Time to Come by Robie Macauley (1979)
  240. The Secrets of Pistoulet (1996) and The Legend of the Villa Della Luna: The Sequel to the Secrets of Pistoulet (1997) by Jana Kolpen and Mary Tiegreen (photographer)
  241. Museum icon  Palette icon The Seventh Unicorn by Kelly Jones (2005)
  242. Scroll icon Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo (2001)
  243. Maple Leaf - Canadian title Palette icon Significant Things by Helen McLean (2003)
  244. Singer from the Sea by Sheri S. Tepper (1999)
  245. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1959)
  246. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleSisters of Grass by Theresa Kishkan (2000)
  247. The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga (1994)
  248. Small Gods: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett (1992)
  249. Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (1993)
  250. The Smithsonian Institution by Gore Vidal (1998)
  251. Spy Hook by Len Deighton (1988)
  252. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleStar Trek Avenger by William Shatner (1997)
  253. Star Trek: Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (1994)
  254. The Stately Home Murder by Catherine Aird (1970)
  255. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleA Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James de Mille (1888); online edition via Early Canadiana Online.
  256. Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz (1986)
  257. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1914)
  258. Temple by Matthew Reilly (2001)
  259. The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley (1999)
  260. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Tetramachus Collection by Philippe van Rjndt (1976)
  261. Palette iconThief of Light by David Ramus (1995)
  262. Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein (1973)
  263. Treasure by Clive Cussler (1988)
  264. Scroll icon The True Account: Concerning a Vermont Gentleman's Race to the Pacific Against and Exploration of the Western American Continent Coincident to the Expedition of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark by Howard Frank Mosher (2003)
  265. The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset ... and Various Songs, Journal Excerpts, and Letters Such As Seem Pertinentby Philip Lee Williams (1997)
  266. Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston (2005) in which an evil museum paleontological curator gets murdered
  267. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Underpainter by Jane Urquhart (1997)
  268. The Valentino series by Loren D. Estleman (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1998-)
  269. Museum icon  Palette icon The Van Gogh Conspiracy: A Novel by J. Madison Davis (2005). Date added: 2006-01-22.
  270. Vault of the Ages by Poul Anderson (1952)
  271. Vespers by Jeff Rovin (1998)
  272. Visitation by Don Cushman (1996)
  273. War Machine by William Marshall (1982)
  274. War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches edited by Kevin J. Anderson (1996)
  275. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleThe Wars by Timothy Findley (1977)
  276. The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve (1997)
  277. The Werner-Bok Series by Charles A. Goodrum (Dewey Decimated, no. 1, 1977; Carnage of the Realm, no. 2, 1979; The Best Cellar, no. 3, 1987; A Slip of the Tong, no. 4, 1992)
  278. Maple Leaf - Canadian titleScroll icon What Casanova Told Me (Canadian edition) by Susan Swan (2004); U.S. edition June 2005
  279. The Williamsburg Forgeries by John Ballinger (1989)
  280. The Wolf of Winter by Paula Volsky (1993)
  281. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1859-1860)
  282. Zinnia by Jayne Castle (1997)

Online Bookstores

A portion of the proceeds from these click-through online stores is donated towards the recovery of Tulane University in New Orleans.

Search and purchase any of these titles through In Association with Amazon.ca or an Amazon.com Associate.


This site and its pages may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent.

Web site hosted by the Victoria Telecommunity Network at .

Suggestions for The Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and Museums may be e-mailed to (d m a t t i s o n - A T - s h a w - DOT - c a). If you would like to submit a film, TV program, or published fictional representation of an archives or archivist, please follow the format in the Just Cause or The X-Files HTML (source document) files.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: Thank you to those who have posted reviews and notices of books and stories on the ARCHIVES mailing list. Where I have drawn from these submissions, full credit by name is given.


CONTENTS: The Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries & Museums