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

by Philip Kerr

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609609815
• ISBN13: 9780609609811
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 345 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Marvelous period thriller

I borrowed this audio book from the library, assuming it without really even checking the cover was some kind of a biography of Newton. When I realized it was actually a Sherlock Holmes / Watson type detective thriller, I was initially disappointed and planned to return forthwith, since I'm not really into fiction for the time being. But, I had listened to just enough to make me curious about what was going to happen next, and before I new it, I was hooked. I'm glad in retrospect that I gave this book a chance, because it turned out to be thoroughly entertaining, through and through. Written from the point of view of Newton's assistant at the mint, Christopher Ellis, and superbly narrated by John Lee, this book is worth listening to just for the wonderful usage of the English as it was spoken at the time. When it comes to good writing, this is what I'm talking about. The descriptions of the strumpets, jades, whores, wenches etc. is titillating and a bit shocking. The cruelty of the punishments dished out to the victims of the justice system in that day are horrifying, yet appealing to that part of all of us which lurks beneath the intellect. The love affair between Newton's niece and Ellis handled beautifully, and the culmination of their infatuation is graphically and entertainingly described. Along with the gruesome murders, and action sequences, this book actually delivers a bucket full of sex and violence. Still, the nicely developed plot and the elevated use language makes this book an extremely satisfying read - or I should "listen" in my case. Which leads me to John Lee, whose rendition is about as good as it gets. I agree, though, with a reviewer who stated that the sex and violence need not have been so thoroughly described. It seems a contradiction that such a well-researched and written book should delve so often and so descriptively into the baser matters. It's actually kind of shocking. Toward the end, there emerge some parallels to the DaVinci Code, and the Ellis's questions and speculations in that area eloquent and pleasing. This book is certainly infinitely better written than the DaVinci code. Having read the reviews, I think I'll have to look into Kerr's noir trilogy. I'm quite certain based on this novel that they, too, will prove to be eminently worthwhile.

Extraordinary period mystery.

A mystery which should keep even the most jaded reader intrigued and involved, Dark Matter begins like a typical Sherlock Holmes mystery, with Sir Isaac Newton interviewing Christopher Ellis to work as his assistant as Warden of the Royal Mint, and deducing all manner of personal information from clues he notices on Ellis's person. But here the similarities end. The murders which Newton and Ellis soon investigate are part of a much broader picture of intrigue than anything in the Sherlock Holmes series, here involving the recoinage of England's silver and gold, battles against smugglers and counterfeiters, the enmity and warfare between England and France, the continuing hatred between Catholics and Protestants in both countries, the missing treasure of the Knights Templar, and alchemy, astronomy, scientific study, and even the ciphers developed a hundred years earlier by Rene Descartes. Newton remains throughout the novel as a somewhat mysterious character, formal, scholarly, honest, and industrious, but personally remote, even from his niece, with whom he lives. Ellis, on the other hand, quickly engages the reader with his innate charm and physicality--he's an ebullient 20-year-old, "..." As this surprisingly compatible team investigates several grotesquely staged murders, while battling the political status quo at the Tower of London, where the Mint is located, the reader is taken on a wide-ranging and colorful tour of the city from its royal houses to its bawdy houses, its churches to its opium dens, and its bookshops to its prisons. An informer with a steel nose, a man half eaten by a lion in the Tower, a goldsmith smuggling silver to France, and real characters, such as the vulgar Daniel Defoe and the likeable Samuel Pepys, keep the reader constantly engaged. The author cleverly and unobtrusively provides several recaps of the action and what it means within the context of the narrative, just at the point when the story may become a bit confusing, clearly remembering that the reader may be unfamiliar with this period and its history. He does burden his story with a large number of characters who appear only briefly and provide scant information, but this is a minor quibble in this ambitious and entertaining novel of enormous scope and historical perspective. Mary Whipple

A mystery novel with a difference: a brain

I've read Richard Westfall's bio of Newton - a real monster - and I thought Kerr got him pretty well right. The point is that Newton was a very hard man to get to know, a real mystery. One of these other reviews grumbles that Kerr's portrait of Newton is less than inaccurate. Which part? Newton not being a heretic? He was. Newton not being an alchemist? He was. Newton not believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ? He didn't. Newton not working at the Royal Mint? He did. Newton caring very little for other people? He didn't. Newton being obsessed with empirical method? He was. If anything I got a better impression of Newton the man, than was to be found in Westfall's bio. Frankly if I had a criticism of this book it is that it seemed a little too accurate, sometimes at the expense of making the hero - Newton - seem rather unheroic. I guess this is what happens when you spend so much time with math. It turns you into a cold fish. The other reviewers got it right. This is a classic mystery novel. Best of all, it's beautifully written and easy to read.

Kerr Back on Form

History, rather than the future seems to be where Kerr feels at his most comfortable and demonstrates himself a cut above most thriller and mystery writers. I wasn't a big fan of his novel The 2nd Angel. But his Bernie Gunther series of novels, collected as Berlin Noir, are something else again. I can't begin to remember how many people recommended that book to me, and I have never understood why he has never written another. That aside, this book shows Kerr on his best form since Berlin Noir. At once reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and The Name of the Rose, I enjoyed this novel enormously. It is highly intelligent without being pretentious and extremely readable without ever being predictable. Above all it is informative as well as being entertaining. I am now going to buy a biography of Sir Isaac Newton and find out more about England's greatest scientist. Full marks to Kerr for a really clever idea.

The model for Sherlock Holmes

I have only read this book in German, where it is called Newton's Schatten (Newton's Shadow) and can't answer for the English edition, but I really enjoyed this novel very much. It is a mystery very much in the same tradition as The Name of the Rose, only a little more accessible. I also read An Instanz of the Fingerpost and did not like that nearly as much as this one. I loved Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy - possibly the hardboiled best detective stories written since Chandler - and I would say that this is his best book in a long time. Kerr seems to be suggesting almost that Newton was a model for Sherlock Holmes: after all, he invented the same scientific method beloved of Holmes; and in this he is most persuasive. If I have a criticism it is that the style seems occasionally too authentically 17th century. But that may be the German of course. (Generally speaking it is a most elegantly written story.) Otherwise it is a first class novel, really, and I shall be giving the book to many friends this Christmas. Wunderbar.