Summary and Reviews of Music of The Spheres by Elizabeth Redfern

Music of The Spheres by Elizabeth Redfern

Music of The Spheres

by Elizabeth Redfern
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (7):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 1, 2001, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 2002, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

In the London of 1795, intrigue and death walk the dark streets. England is at war with France and espionage is rampant - and it is the job of John Absey to catch these spies. Intricately plotted and beautifully paced.

In the London of 1795, intrigue and death walk the dark streets. England is at war with its neighbor and nemesis, France, and espionage is rampant. It is the job of Jonathan Absey at the Home Office to catch these spies, but his mind is elsewhere, his dreams haunted by the still unsolved murder of his fifteen-year-old daughter in these same streets. Desperately pursuing both investigations, he stumbles across a strange society of astronomers called the Company of Titius who are on a furious search of their own: to discover a long-lost star in the wide black sky. Soon, as he digs into their arcane world, their quest begins to merge with his own, and Absey finds himself discovering more than he had ever imagined - not only about spies and murderers but also about celestial numbers and the making of codes; about passions as unnatural as they are obsessive; and about the bonds of family...and the lengths we will go to preserve them.

With The Music of the Spheres, Elizabeth Redfern emerges as an evocative and elegant writer of startling power, her gifts for characterization, atmosphere, narrative, and rich moral drama marking her as a new star in her own right.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Booklist
In Redfern's historically immaculate first novel, it is as if John le Carre has gone Age of Enlightenment on us; while in the novel's second story line about a brutal serial murderer, it is as if Silence of the Lambs has been reset in the Napoleonic era.

Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. The Music of the Spheres demands an attentive ear, even as its multiple harmonies enchant and satisfy the senses

Library Journal
Redfern has a deep understanding of this historical period and uses contemporary epigraphs to good effect. Strongly recommended.

Publishers Weekly
This British first novel is a historical thriller in the vein of Caleb Carr and Iain Pears, with maximum melodramatic coloring.

Author Blurb Martha Grimes
Intricately plotted, beautifully paced, The Music of the Spheres is an elegant historical novel rich in detail, at times Dickensian in its description of London. Elizabeth Redfern has made an exciting debut.

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