Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton [Hardcover]

Philip Kerr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Holmes and Watson provide the template for this very satisfying historical thriller from Kerr (The Grid, etc.), with Sir Isaac Newton acting as great detective and one Christopher Ellis serving as narrator. It's 1696, and a series of murders are plaguing the Tower of London, where the middle-aged Newton has recently assumed (as in real life) the position of warden of the royal mint, with the younger Ellis (again as in real life) serving as his assistant. Like Holmes, the cold and cerebral Newton relies on rationalism the scientific method to solve the crimes, while Ellis, quick with sword, pistol and temper, brings the emotional counterweight provided by Conan Doyle's Watson. The murders are accompanied by esoteric clues, most notably encrypted messages and alchemical references, that spur Newton to their resolution as forcefully as does his intense sense of duty, for the killings seem to involve not only a plot to disrupt a recoinage necessary to continue England's war with France, but also a conspiracy to commit religious genocide against a backdrop of incessant tensions between Catholics and Protestants. The mystery elements of the novel provide a sturdy spine for the book's main flesh: its robust recreation of life at the end of the 17th century. Ellis's fluid narration sets the tone, illuminating a London beset by pestilence, poverty, whores and ruffians, noblemen grave or foppish, opium dens, brothels and grisly executions, and a bright array of historical figures including, in the role of blackguard, Daniel Defoe. There's an erotic/romantic subplot involving Ellis and Newton's niece, but the main focus is on the two leads. Both are well drawn, though Newton, ostensibly the novel's center, is less compelling than Ellis's full-blooded youth. That disparity, and an overly complex plot, are the drawbacks of what is, withal, a most gripping and well-appointed entertainment.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

There have been many mysteries featuring famous historical figures as protagonists, among them Elliot Roosevelt's crime-solving First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Stephanie Barron's investigative Jane Austen, and Karen Harper's sleuthing Queen Elizabeth I. Now comes Sir Isaac Newton and his assistant, Christopher Ellis (also an actual person). It is 1696 in London, and Ellis has been hired to help Newton in his job as Warden of the Royal Mint. Ordered by the king to find and prosecute counterfeiters whose false coins threaten the war-shaken British economy, the two men get more than they bargained for when they uncover a much more dangerous conspiracy. Plot devices such as secret coded documents, the pseudoscience of alchemy, and a string of strange murders make for an exciting read. Using as backdrop the Tower of London, the Royal Mint, Bedlam madhouse, and Newgate Prison, the ever-versatile Kerr, author of sophisticated science-based thrillers like The Second Angel and Esau, weaves a rich tapestry of interesting characters and period details. Highly recommended. Fred Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609609815
• ISBN-13: 978-0609609811
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh in 1956 and read Law at university. Having learned nothing as an undergraduate lawyer he stayed on as postgraduate and read Law and Philosophy, most of this German, which was when and where he first became interested in German twentieth century history and, in particular, the Nazis. Following university he worked as a copywriter at a number of advertising agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi, during which time he wrote no advertising slogans of any note. He spent most of his time in advertising researching an idea he'd had for a novel about a Berlin-based policeman, in 1936. And following several trips to Germany - and a great deal of walking around the mean streets of Berlin - his first novel, March Violets, was published in 1989 and introduced the world to Bernie Gunther.
"I loved Berlin before the wall came down; I'm pretty fond of the place now, but back then it was perhaps the most atmospheric city on earth. Having a dark, not to say black sense of humour myself, it's always been somewhere I feel very comfortable."
Having left advertising behind, Kerr worked for the London Evening Standard and produced two more novels featuring Bernie Gunther: The Pale Criminal (1990) and A German Requiem (1991). These were published as an omnibus edition, Berlin Noir in 1992.
Thinking he might like to write something else, he did and published a host of other novels before returning to Bernie Gunther after a gap of sixteen years, with The One from the Other (2007).
Says Kerr, "I never intended to leave such a large gap between Book 3 and Book 4; a lot of other stuff just got in the way; and I feel kind of lucky that people are still as interested in this guy as I am. If anything I'm more interested in him now than I was back in the day."
Two more novels followed, A Quiet Flame (2008) and If the Dead Rise Not (2009).
Field Gray (2010) is perhaps his most ambitious novel yet that features Bernie Gunther. Crossing a span of more than twenty years, it takes Bernie from Cuba, to New York, to Landsberg Prison in Germany where he vividly describes a story that covers his time in Paris, Toulouse, Minsk, Konigsberg, and his life as a German POW in Soviet Russia.
Kerr is already working on an eighth title in the series.
"I don't know how long I can keep doing them; I'll probably write one too many; but I don't feel that's happened yet."
As P.B.Kerr Kerr is also the author of the popular 'Children of the Lamp' series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kerr Back on Form, October 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mystery novel with a difference: a brain, October 8, 2002

By 

Anthony Scipio (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton (Hardcover)

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.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Betwixt matters dark, stilted, and incongruent, September 26, 2003

By 

P. Kingsriter "R.N. Guy" (Lakeville, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton (Hardcover)

DARK MATTER by Philip Kerr is a tale of epic opportunity, but meager result. Kerr attempts to flesh-out a dark, brooding mystery in dark, brooding Central London during the dark, brooding 17th century. A reader could get the feeling that Mr. Kerr was trying to set a certain mood...

The story observes Sir Isaac Newton through the eyes of his apprentice, Christopher Ellis, both "real" people. Newton is, of course, brilliant but also comes across as quite conceited, unfeeling, and not in the least bit charming. One could hope that the Newton character could be likeable, even in an eccentric manner, but Kerr's Newton gives the reader no reason to cheer, or care. Ellis is his swashbuckling sidekick who's good with a sword and better with the ladies. Yes, Ellis is, in fact, THAT cliched. In both cases, the characters move about London with relatively little believable motivation (Newton: pursuit of counterfeiters; Ellis: pursuit of some "tail"). Even with poetic license on his side, Kerr's revelations into the mind of what could be the world's most brilliant scientist are remarkably shallow and unimaginative.

The prose is positively painful. One might imagine Kerr hunched over a thesaurus looking up words that sound old. From the first page, one can tell the reading of DARK MATTER will be an effort: "...a little consideration of heavenly deliverance might have helped me to channel my anger against Papist tyranny instead of the man who had impugned my honour." (And that's not even the whole sentence.) I'll admit the effort was valiant, but it lacks the rhythmic flow of literature of the day, and ends up stilted, staccato, and awkward. The unevenness of his effort is evident, never more dramatically than in the midst of Ellis' flowery description of a particularly attractive (and married) woman, he throws in a comment about her "boobies". Great literature, to be sure.

With shallow characters, a mad-lib mystery plot, and over-formal, pretentious prose, DARK MATTER was a major disappointment.