I’ve become a big fan of Louis Bayard recently. He does a great job of weaving together historical stories into an interesting mystery. His books involve real people (Edgar Allen Poe from The Pale Blue Eye) or fictional (Tiny Tim from Mr. Timothy) or a historical group (the French revolution in The Black Tower) and crafts a mystery. But, now he’s decided to make a slight change to the formula in his latest book, The School of Night. The book is based on the real-life genius Thomas Harriot. Harriot invented the theory of refraction, made a detailed moon drawing before Galileo did, influenced Johannes Kepler, discovered Snell’s law before Snell, discovered Girard theorem before Girard. As you can tell he was a very smart guy who didn’t publish his work very much. The story is based on him, but set half in the present day. It’s another historical mystery, only this time with an English mathematics genius.

Henry Cavendish is an English scholar who has suffered a great deal due to being taken in by a fake historical letter. The only person who he can still count on is his friend Alonzo Wax. Which is why Henry was named the executor of Alonzo’s estate after Alonzo died. At the wake, he runs into Alonzo’s trusted assistant Lily, a rival antiquities collector named Bernard Styles (who has a reputation of disposing of people who don’t sell him stuff) and he spies a beautiful woman. Styles mentions that Alonzo had borrowed a letter from Thomas Harriot from him and he wants it back when Henry runs across it in Alonzo’s estate.

The search for the letter leads to additional mysteries and leads a group (including the beautiful woman who is named Clarissa) to suspect that a drawing on the back of the letter is a deposit of gold from Herriot’s benefactor Walter Raleigh. The search leads across multiple continents with our heroes trying to evade Styles and stay alive while searching for the treasure. There are numerous surprises that our group comes across on their way to the prize. Along the way we are taken back to the past through visions that Clarissa is having of Harriot and his assistant Margaret. The book works through the mystery in both time periods as they converge on the final answer.

The book reads like a slightly better written version of The Da Vinci Code only with English mathematicians instead of Italian artists. It’s not a bad book, but it’s just not up to the same level as Bayard’s previous books. It is a quick read and interesting since I hadn’t heard of Herriot before. But, I was slightly disappointed by it. Still, I would gladly pick up future Bayard books. Mildy recommended.