Written by Louis Bayard
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

Bayard is known for his historical mysteries (Mr. Timothy, 2003; The Pale Blue Eye, 2006), and here he adds a different element to the mix by combining a plot set in the Elizabethan era with a modern-day story. It seems disgraced scholar Henry Cavendish’s good friend, Alonzo Wax, a man of large appetites, has stolen a letter from ruthless antiquities collector Bernard Styles, who desperately wants it back. The letter purportedly contains a treasure map connected to the School of Night, a secretive intellectual club whose members included unheralded genius Thomas Harriot as well as Sir Walter Raleigh, who were well aware that discussing certain subjects in public could cost them their lives. As Henry tracks down the missing letter, Bayard intersperses the story of Harriot’s great love affair with his beautiful servant turned scientific colleague, Margaret. Although not quite as gripping as The Black Tower (2008), Bayard’s latest is considerably more humorous in tone as he interweaves the antic comedy of the modern-day caper with the tragic and affecting love story of the past.