Ghostwalk Author:Rebecca Stott A Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy—the culmination of her lifelong obsession with the seventeenth century—remains unfinished. When her son, Cameron, asks his former lover, Lydia Brooke, to gh... more »ostwrite the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, Lydia agrees and moves into Elizabeth’s house—a studio in an orchard where the light moves restlessly across the walls. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a dangerous conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them.
Filled with evocative descriptions of Cambridge, past and present, of seventeenth-century glassmaking, alchemy, the Great Plague, and Newton’s scientific innovations, Ghostwalk centers around a real historical mystery that Rebecca Stott has uncovered involving Newton’s alchemy. In it, time and relationships are entangled—the present with the seventeenth century, and figures from the past with the love-torn twenty-first century woman who is trying to discover their secrets. A stunningly original display of scholarship and imagination, and a gripping story of desire and obsession, Ghostwalk is a rare debut that will change the way most of us think about scientific innovation, the force of history, and time itself.« less
This book is the first novel by an academic author--and unfortunately, it reads like it. The aspects of the book that were based on the author's actual historical research were the most interesting. The fictional plot wrapped around that information, however, was not as well done. Worth reading if you don't let your expectations get too high.
What can I say about a book I gave up on after struggling through the first fourth of pages. I couldn't´t find anything that kept me reading or interested in any way. I don't really think I made it to the point where the story is supposed to become exciting or in a way "ghostly" or mystery-like.
I figured time is to precious to waste it on a book that doesn't really fulfill my needs when there are so much other books on my shelf that certainly are better.
Currently 0/5 Stars.
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Very good book! It kept me interested in a lot of different areas.
I could not get into this book.. maybe it just wasn't what I was looking for at the time. I will probably try reading it again at another time.. It just couldn't hold my interest..