
The Archivist
A Thriller
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $21.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Caroline Hewitt
-
By:
-
Rex Pickett
About this listen
When archivist Nadia Fontaine is found dead of an apparent drowning, Emily Snow is hired by Regents University to finish the job she started - to organize and process the papers of Raymond West, a famous Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has been short-listed for the Nobel.
Emily’s job comes with its inherent pressures. West’s wife, Elizabeth, is an heiress who’s about to donate $25 million to the Memorial Library - an eight-story architectural marvel that is the crown jewel of the university. The inaugural event in just a few months will be a gala for the who’s who of San Diego to celebrate the unveiling of the Raymond West Collection and the financial gift that made it all possible.
As Emily sets to work on the West papers, it begins to dawn on her that several items have gone missing from the collection. To trace their whereabouts, she gains unsupervised access to the highly restricted “dark archives", in which she opens a Pandora’s box of erotically and intellectually charged correspondence between Raymond West and the late Nadia Fontaine. Through their archived emails, Emily goes back a year in time and relives the tragic trajectory of their passionate love affair. Did Nadia really drown accidentally, as the police report concluded, or could it have been suicide, or, even worse, murder? Compelled to complete the collection and find the truth, Emily unwittingly morphs into an adult Nancy Drew and a one-woman archivist crusader on a mission to right the historical record.
Twisting slowly like a tourniquet, The Archivist turns into a suspenseful murder mystery with multiple and intersecting layers. Not just a whodunit, it is also a profound meditation on love, privacy, and the ethics of destroying or preserving materials of a highly personal nature.
©2021 Rex Pickett (P)2021 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
Sideways
- By: Rex Pickett
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sideways is the story of two friends, Miles and Jack, going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country.
-
-
A brilliant comic novel about midlife crises
- By Geoff on 06-15-05
By: Rex Pickett
-
Fake
- A Novel
- By: Erica Katz
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Caan is a fake. She’s a forger, an artist who specializes in nineteenth-century paintings. But she isn’t a criminal; her copies are commissioned by museums and ultra-wealthy collectors protecting their investments. Emma’s more than mastered a Gauguin brushstroke and a van Gogh wheat field, but her work is sometimes a painful reminder of the artistic dreams she once chased for herself, when she was younger and before her family and her world fell apart.
-
-
Predicable & Anticlimactic
- By S. Adams on 02-23-22
By: Erica Katz
-
The Lunar Housewife
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Woods
- Narrated by: Jeanna Phillips, Cindy Kay
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City, 1953: Louise Leithauser's star is on the rise. She's filed some of the best pieces at her boyfriend Joe's brand-new literary magazine, Downtown (albeit under a male pseudonym), her relationship still makes her weak at the knees, and the science-fiction romance she's writing on the side, "The Lunar Housewife," is going swimmingly. But when she overhears Joe and his business partner fighting about listening devices and death threats, Louise can't help but investigate, and she quickly finds herself wading into dangerous waters.
-
-
Spies & Space!
- By Chels on 09-06-24
By: Caroline Woods
-
Beta: A Technological Nightmare
- By: Sammy Scott
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Danvers’ life of self-imposed seclusion is interrupted when he receives a strange invitation: the unique opportunity to move into and beta-test a fully automated, state-of-the-art smart home.
-
-
The Best of 2023
- By ML on 09-05-23
By: Sammy Scott
-
The Last Flight
- A Novel
- By: Julie Clark
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of 10, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.
-
-
Intriguing premise
- By SGS on 06-28-20
By: Julie Clark
-
Outfox
- By: Sandra Brown
- Narrated by: Victor Slezak
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the con man once known as Weston Graham. Over the past 30 years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence...except for one signature custom.
-
-
Annual Great Ms Brown
- By Empress Karen on 08-06-19
By: Sandra Brown
-
Sideways
- By: Rex Pickett
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sideways is the story of two friends, Miles and Jack, going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez wine country.
-
-
A brilliant comic novel about midlife crises
- By Geoff on 06-15-05
By: Rex Pickett
-
Fake
- A Novel
- By: Erica Katz
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma Caan is a fake. She’s a forger, an artist who specializes in nineteenth-century paintings. But she isn’t a criminal; her copies are commissioned by museums and ultra-wealthy collectors protecting their investments. Emma’s more than mastered a Gauguin brushstroke and a van Gogh wheat field, but her work is sometimes a painful reminder of the artistic dreams she once chased for herself, when she was younger and before her family and her world fell apart.
-
-
Predicable & Anticlimactic
- By S. Adams on 02-23-22
By: Erica Katz
-
The Lunar Housewife
- A Novel
- By: Caroline Woods
- Narrated by: Jeanna Phillips, Cindy Kay
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York City, 1953: Louise Leithauser's star is on the rise. She's filed some of the best pieces at her boyfriend Joe's brand-new literary magazine, Downtown (albeit under a male pseudonym), her relationship still makes her weak at the knees, and the science-fiction romance she's writing on the side, "The Lunar Housewife," is going swimmingly. But when she overhears Joe and his business partner fighting about listening devices and death threats, Louise can't help but investigate, and she quickly finds herself wading into dangerous waters.
-
-
Spies & Space!
- By Chels on 09-06-24
By: Caroline Woods
-
Beta: A Technological Nightmare
- By: Sammy Scott
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Danvers’ life of self-imposed seclusion is interrupted when he receives a strange invitation: the unique opportunity to move into and beta-test a fully automated, state-of-the-art smart home.
-
-
The Best of 2023
- By ML on 09-05-23
By: Sammy Scott
-
The Last Flight
- A Novel
- By: Julie Clark
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of 10, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.
-
-
Intriguing premise
- By SGS on 06-28-20
By: Julie Clark
-
Outfox
- By: Sandra Brown
- Narrated by: Victor Slezak
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the con man once known as Weston Graham. Over the past 30 years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence...except for one signature custom.
-
-
Annual Great Ms Brown
- By Empress Karen on 08-06-19
By: Sandra Brown
-
The Other Emily
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade ago, Emily Carlino vanished after her car broke down on a California highway. She was presumed to be one of serial killer Ronny Lee Jessup’s victims whose remains were never found. Writer David Thorne still hasn’t recovered from losing the love of his life, or from the guilt of not being there to save her. Then David meets Maddison Sutton, beguiling, playful, and keenly aware of all David has lost. But what really takes his breath away is that everything about Maddison, down to her kisses, is just like Emily.
-
-
Worst koontz ever! Don’t waste a credit.
- By Leslie on 03-27-21
By: Dean Koontz
-
The Senator's Wife
- The Senator's Wife Series Book 1
- By: Jen Lyon
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When professional soccer player Alex Grey goes on a vacation to the local South Carolina islands, she isn't anticipating any life-changing events. Just a relaxing weekend to prepare for the upcoming season. But that quickly changes when she finds herself the lone witness to a sailing accident and makes the decision to risk her own life to save a drowning woman—unwittingly coming to the rescue of a US senator's wife, Catharine Cleveland.
-
-
WOW!
- By Aisley Deymonaz on 09-19-23
By: Jen Lyon
-
Who Is Maud Dixon?
- A Novel
- By: Alexandra Andrews
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Florence Darrow has always felt she was destined for greatness, but after a disastrous affair with her married boss, she starts to doubt herself. All that changes when she sets off for Morocco with her new boss, the celebrated but reclusive author Maud Dixon. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh, Florence begins to feel she’s leading the sort of interesting, cosmopolitan life she deserves. But when she wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night - and no sign of Maud - a dangerous idea begins to take form....
-
-
Whoa! Buy this book!
- By Beth on 03-04-21
-
In the Deep
- By: Loreth Anne White
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Real-estate mogul Martin Cresswell-Smith is the best thing that has ever happened to Ellie. After her daughter’s devastating death, a divorce, and an emotional breakdown, he’s helped her move as far as possible from the grief, the rage, and the monsters of her past. Ellie imagines her new home with Martin in an Australian coastal town will be like living a fairy tale. But behind closed doors is another story - one that ends in Martin’s brutal murder. And Ellie seems almost relieved... Naturally, everyone thinks Mrs. Cresswell-Smith is guilty.
-
-
Trigger Warnings!
- By Jan M on 11-02-20
-
When I Was You
- By: Minka Kent
- Narrated by: Erin deWard, Will Damron
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After barely surviving a brutal attack, Brienne Dougray rarely leaves her house. Suffering from debilitating headaches and memory loss, she can rely only on her compassionate new tenant, Dr. Niall Emberlin, a welcome distraction from the discomfiting bubble that has become her existence. But Brienne’s growing confidence in her new routine is shaken when she stumbles across unsettling evidence that someone else is living as...her. Same name. Same car. Same hair. Same clothes. She’s even friended her family on social media.
-
-
I Was Flabbergasted By This One
- By Brian on 02-20-20
By: Minka Kent
-
The Tenant
- By: Katrine Engberg
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a young woman is found brutally murdered in her own apartment with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. Soon, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist - and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows.
-
-
THOROUGHLY enjoyed this!!!
- By Mary C. Garrison on 02-10-20
By: Katrine Engberg
-
American Witch
- By: Thea Harrison
- Narrated by: Sophie Eastlake
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For months, Molly Sullivan endures the inexplicable: electrical surges, car breakdowns, visions. She even wonders if she might be the cause...and wonders if she might be crazy. Then she discovers her husband has cheated on her. Again. Now Molly realizes she is a newly awakening witch and a woman pushed over the edge.
-
-
I enjoyed it buuuut...
- By mat on 05-30-19
By: Thea Harrison
-
Where the Truth Lives
- By: Mia Sheridan
- Narrated by: Teddy Hamiton, Callie Dalton
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the director of a local mental health hospital is found murdered and mutilated, Homicide Detective Reed Davies is first on scene. What was done to the body is gruesome. Inexplicable. But Reed is dealt another curveball when he finds that the doctor who discovered the victim is someone Reed is intimately familiar with - a woman with whom he shared one passionate night weeks before. Dr. Elizabeth Nolan is somehow tangled up in the crime, and even while Reed must now question her possible involvement, he can’t help being drawn to the beautiful, enigmatic woman.
-
-
Very intense suspense thriller!
- By Wayne on 08-21-20
By: Mia Sheridan
-
Everyday History
- By: Alice Archer
- Narrated by: Daan Stone
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Headstrong Ruben Harper has yet to meet an obstacle he can't convert to a speed bump. He's used to getting what he wants from girls, but when he develops a fascination for a man, his wooing skills require an upgrade. After months of persuasion, he scores a dinner date with Henry Normand that morphs into an intense weekend. The unexpected depth of their connection scares Ruben into fleeing.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Mickie B. Ashling, Author on 04-28-17
By: Alice Archer
-
Raven Lane
- By: Amber Cowie
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Esme and Benedict Werner have an idyllic life in a tight-knit community until an accident in their cul-de-sac ends in the tragic sudden death of one of their dearest neighbors. After vindicating eyewitness accounts morph into contradictory memories, suspicion, and unaccountable accusations, Benedict is arrested. Esme’s life, too, is changed forever.
-
-
Twists and turns!
- By DWGroucho on 08-29-24
By: Amber Cowie
-
Coffin Road
- By: Peter May
- Narrated by: Peter Forbes
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a man washes up on a deserted beach, hypothermic and completely disoriented. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his condition is a map of the island showing a desolate, ancient path called the Coffin Road. With a sense of dread and no clear idea what lies at the other end, he knows he must follow the trail if he has any hope of discovering his identity. Meanwhile, homicide detective George Gunn makes the rough ocean crossing to a remote, sea-battered lighthouse to investigate a brutal murder.
-
-
Highly recommend!
- By Whispera on 01-11-22
By: Peter May
-
Time Sensitive
- A Time Travel Novel
- By: Elyse Douglas
- Narrated by: Chelsea Carpenter
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1968, Charlotte Vance was one of the few women employed by the National Security Agency in Washington, D.C. She put in long hours and was working when a fire started in her home. Her daughters and husband were killed. For 50 years, she has felt responsible for their deaths. In 2018, when a former colleague from the NSA mentions a top secret government agency that is experimenting with time travel, she decides to apply.
-
-
Not my cup of tea
- By Catherine Peterson on 12-22-22
By: Elyse Douglas
What listeners say about The Archivist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A.
- 11-15-21
WoW! So much packed in here!
I loved it and had difficulty putting it down. If I were still in school, I would critique more analytically. Suffice it to say, it's a great, complicated, beautiful read! The reader did an excellent job, btw.
👏😃
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Donna
- 11-30-21
3
I had high hopes that this was really a focused archivest mystery. For me, it wasn't.
1) It wallowed in an adolescent level
lust affair between two middle aged literati.
A big part of the book wasted.
2 The mystery was interesting
3) BUT I loved the characters of the Special Collections feifdom of Helena. Very well done!
4) If we see Emily Snow featured in a sequel, I will be there.
It is worth a credit, speed thru the long romance setting scenes early in the book. Then settle in
for a good read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- R.R.B.
- 11-13-21
An elevated performance
I bought the book because I liked the movie sideways. While it took me a minute to get into the story, the narrator kept me hooked with her performance. I don't think I would make it far reading the text because of its pacing, but the reader's precise enunciation makes it an enjoyable 1.75x listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Audible Customer
- 12-24-23
Love It
A gem in the rubble. It holds your interest for more than 24 hours of listening. A real holiday book.Thank you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michele A. Manting
- 06-19-24
Millennial Self-absorption
Once I got past the point of view the story was OK. I think if that was removed the book would be 2 or 3 hours shorter
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bay Area Girl
- 11-27-21
Repeats repeats repeats
Too long and too pretentious; an intriguing dilemma is buried under a slog of words. The Regents U ( UCSD ) and Blacks Beach setting was wasted. Obviously intended as a noir homage to Chandler but falls short . Needed an editor not an archivist to hone in on what was a very timely ideas: artist’s work v artist’s private life, big donors controlling the archive, what’s the source of an artist’s inspiration, digital cloud storage replacing books ( now a space for galas instead of research stacks.) too bad the writing dragged all this under .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. Mahon
- 12-18-22
Awful
Rex Pickett is not a good writer. His descriptive paragraphs go on too long. His plot unfolds at a painful glacial pace. He is interesting when the plot is backed by wine lore of Santa Barbara, Oregon or Chile, but without, his novel length work is awful. His editor should have done a better job of trimming down these 700 pages to a tighter book of less than 300. That’s would more like Chandler than this enormous stolid weakly plotted novel
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Leigh A Stokes
- 11-13-21
Writing by thesaurus
I am many hours into this book and am considering dropping it, which I hate to do. The description made it sound like an intriguing mystery. In fact, it is ridiculously overwritten. Turgid prose. Obscure vocab words that distract from the narrative. It’s becoming almost silly. And it’s taking forever to move things along. Can’t remember where I heard about this book, but it’s not good. And the performance is overwrought. So sorry.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful