The School of Night — Louis Bayard

King James I has just assumed the throne and Thomas Harriot, known as England's Galileo, ponders the universe from his modest home on his friend's estate. Harriot, the mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer, and translator, is also a member of a group of five brilliant scholars who meet under the cloak of darkness to discuss God, politics, and the black arts. When the estate provides him with a housekeeper, he has little idea how important she will become -- in his studies and in his heart.

In modern-day Washington, D.C., disgraced Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish has been hired by antiquities collector Bernard Styles. It's rumored that Styles will do anything to get his hands on what he wants. But Henry is desperate for money, and Styles has offered him a large sum to recover a letter he claims was stolen by Henry's oldest and dearest friend, Alonzo Wax. Henry overcomes both his suspicion of Styles and his bereavement over Alonzo's recent suicide and sets out on the trail of the missing letter.

Joining Henry in his search is Clarissa Dale, a mysterious woman who suffers from visions that only Henry can understand. The pair find themselves stumbling through a secretive world of ancient perils, caught up in a deadly modern-day plot and ensnared in the tragic legacy of a forgotten genius and the woman he loved.

In The School of Night, Louis Bayard folds his two narratives around each other -- two different centuries sharing one shocking secret -- and creates a gripping story of mysteries and intrigue and a spellbinding portrait of timeless love.