I swore not to tell this story while Newton was still alive.1696, young Christopher Ellis is sent to the Tower of London, but not as a prisoner. Though Ellis is notoriously hotheaded and was caught fighting an illegal duel, he arrives at the Tower as assistant to the renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Newton is Warden of the Royal Mint, which resides within the Tower walls, and he has accepted an appointment from the King of England and Parliament to investigate and prosecute counterfeiters whose false coins threaten to bring down the shaky, war-weakened economy. Ellis may lack Newton's scholarly mind, but he is quick with a pistol and proves himself to be an invaluable sidekick and devoted apprentice to Newton as they zealously pursue these criminals.While Newton and Ellis investigate a counterfeiting ring, they come upon a mysterious coded message on the body of a man killed in the Lion Tower, as well as alchemical symbols that indicate this was more than just a random murder. Despite Newton's formidable intellect, he is unable to decipher the cryptic message or any of the others he and Ellis find as the body count increases within the Tower complex. As they are drawn into a wild pursuit of the counterfeiters that takes them from the madhouse of Bedlam to the squalid confines of Newgate prison and back to the Tower itself, Newton and Ellis discover that the counterfeiting is only a small part of a larger, more dangerous plot, one that reaches to the highest echelons of power and nobility and threatens much more than the collapse of the economy.Dark Matter is the lastest masterwork of suspense from Philip Kerr, the internationally bestselling and brilliantly innovative thriller writer who has dazzled readers with his imaginative, fast-paced novels. Like An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Name of the Rose, and Kerr's own Berlin Noir trilogy, Dark Matter is historical mystery at its finest, an extraordinary, suspense-filled journey through the shadowy streets and back alleys of London with the brilliant Newton and his faithful protégé. The haunted Tower with its bloody history is the perfect backdrop for this richly satisfying tale, one that introduces an engrossing mystery into the volatile mix of politics, science, and religion that characterized life in seventeenth-century London.
Praise for
“An engaging tale … Nobody who reads Dark Matter will ever think of the real Isaac Newton quite the same way again.”—
“A robust recreation of life at the end of the 17th century … a most gripping and well-appointed entertainment.”—
“An illuminating, often crackling exploration into the mysteries of science, mathematics, religion, and human nature … Kerr’s mastery of period detail makes the story all the more delicious.”—
“An exciting read … The ever-versatile Kerr weaves a rich tapestry of interesting characters and period details.”—
“Fascinating … Kerr successfully evokes a dangerous milieu.”—
“A remarkable feat of evocation.”—
“Intellectually rigorous … rich as history and philosophy.”—
a. Moat
b. Water Lane
c. Bloody Tower
d. Salt Tower
e. Broad Arrow Tower
f. Irish Mint
g. Brass Mount
h. English Mint
i. Warden’s House
j. Master’s House
k. Brick Tower (home of the Master of Ordnance)
l. Chapel
m. White Tower
n. Tower Green
o. Beauchamp Tower
p. Bell Tower
q. Comptroller’s House & Yard
r. Entrance to the Mint (and Newton’s office)
s. By ward Tower
t. Middle Tower
u. Lion’s Tower
v. Tower Street to East London
ARISE, SHINE; FOR THY LIGHT IS COME, AND THE GLORY OF THE
LORD IS RISEN UPON THEE.
(ISAIAH 60:1)
On the morning of the twenty-eighth of March 1727—Sir Isaac Newton having died some eight days previously—I took a coach from my new lodgings in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, with Doctor Samuel Clarke, who was Newton’s friend and commentator, to the Abbey to see Newton lie in state like some fabulous Greek hero.
We found him in the Jerusalem Chamber, a great oak-paneled room with a large open fireplace that lies to the southwest of the Abbey, where there are some tapestries and stained glass ascribed to the period of Henry III, and marble busts of Henry IV and Henry V. It is said that Henry IV had a fit while praying one day in the Abbey and was carried into the Jerusalem Chamber where he died, thus fulfilling the prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem.
I cannot answer for whether the likeness of Henry was a good one, but Newton’s embalmer had done his job well and not made the face up like a whore, which is a very common failing with these people. His flesh looked quite natural, being florid, soft and full, as if the man had been only sleeping. And since there was no perceptible smell, Newton having been dead for a week or more, which is a long time for a corpse to be out of the ground, I could readily attest to the efficiency of the embalmer’s hand at least, for although Spring was not quite arrived, it had been quite warm of late.
The man I saw, laid out in an open coffin upon a great long refectory table, wore a full-bottomed flaxen wig, a plain white linen stock, and a black three-piece suit. His face was lined, somewhat heavy about the jowls and, despite a keen, aquiline nose that had always put me in mind of the Roman, not unkind. I had thought I might have perceived in the air of his face some of the penetrating sagacity which had once distinguished his composures. Perhaps even some final wisdom. But in death Newton was a quite unremarkable-looking figure.
“He was in great pain with the stone when he died,” said I.
“But still quite lucid,” replied Doctor Clarke.
“Aye. He was always that. Newton was the most lucid of souls. Newton looked upon all of creation as a riddle, with certain clues that were laid about this world by God. Or perhaps as a kind of cipher which, by great concentration of mind, he might translate. I think he believed that a man who might decipher an earthly code might similarly fathom the heavenly one. He believed nothing unless he could prove it as a theorem or draw it as a diagram.”
“Newton has given us the golden thread by which we may find our way through God’s labyrinth,” said Doctor Clarke.
“Yes,” I said. “Perhaps that is right.”
