Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-304).

"Cambridge, 2003: Cameron Brown, the son of a reclusive historian, discovers his mother's body floating in the muddy waters of the river that runs through her orchard. In her hand, she clutches an antique glass prism." "The book she was writing, the fruit of a lifetime's obsession with the seventeenth century and the story of Isaac Newton as an alchemist, remains unfinished. Elizabeth Vogelsang's findings look set to follow her to the grave." "Lydia Brooke, Elizabeth's friend and Cameron's former lover, returns to Cambridge for the funeral. When Cameron asks Lydia to ghost-write the missing chapter of his mother's book she agrees, and moves into Elizabeth's house - a strange, triangular-shaped studio full of books and papers where the light moves restlessly across the walls." "Soon Lydia comes to see that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge may have its origins in the past, and that the secrets Elizabeth unearthed are bleeding through into the present. Lydia finds herself entangled, not only with Cameron, but also with a series of unexplained seventeenth-century deaths, a network of alchemists and a ghostly figure intent on sabotaging her work."--BOOK JACKET.