Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton: A Novel [Paperback]

In 1696, Christopher Ellis, a young, hot-tempered gentleman, is sent to the Tower of London, but not as a prisoner. A sudden twist of fate has led him there to assist the renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton, who as Warden of the Royal Mint has accepted an appointment to hunt down counterfeiters who threaten to topple the shaky, war-weakened economy. Armed with Newton’s superior intellect and Ellis’s skill with a sword, the new partners seem primed to solve the case. But when their investigation leads them to a mysterious coded message on a corpse hidden in the Lion Tower, they realize that something more sinister is afoot. In the heat of their pursuit, Newton and Ellis’s suspicions become all too real as the body count rises and the duo uncovers a menacing far-reaching plot that might lead to the collapse of the government—and cost them their very lives. An extraordinary, suspense-filled, and richly satisfying tale,Dark Matteris an engrossing mystery infused with the volatile mix of politics, science, and religion that characterized life in seventeenth-century London.Praise for Philip Kerr
“[A] sly and serious writer.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Kerr has the talent to convey the big idea and to take you
places you have never been.”
—The Washington Post BookWorld

“A brilliantly innovative thriller writer.”
—Salman Rushdie

“[Kerr] makes the brain cells as well as the hairs on
the back of the neck tingle.”
—GQmagazine

“One of the best crime novelists in the world.”
—The Globe and Mail(London)PHILIP KERR is the author of The Grid, Esau, A Philosophical Investigation, the Bernie Gunther novels, and many other books.

1. The theme of decoding permeates the novel. As Newton and Ellis investigate the third murder, Newton observes, “All of nature is a cipl£$