Title: The Devlin Diary
Author: Christi Phillips
Publisher: Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster
First sentence: She leaves her house on Portsmouth Street carrying a wood box with a smooth ivory handle and tarnished brass fittings.
About the book: London, 1672. The past twelve years have brought momentous changes: the restoration of the monarchy, a devastating plague and fire. Yet the city remains a teeming, thriving metropolis, energized by the lusty decadence of Charles II's court and burgeoning scientific inquiry. Although women enjoy greater freedom, they are not allowed to practice medicine, a restriction that physician Hannah Devlin evades by treating patients that most other doctors shun: the city's poor.
But Hannah has a special knowledge that Secretary of State Lord Alrington desperately needs. At the king's Machiavellian court, Hannah attracts the attention of two men, charming courtier Ralph Mantagu and anatomist Dr. Edward Strathern, as well as the attention of th epowerful College of Physicians, which views her work as criminal. When two influential courtiers are found brutally murdered, their bodies inscribed with arcane symbols, Hannah is drawn into a dangerous investigation by Dr. Strathern, who believes the murders conceal a far-reaching conspiracy that may include Hannah's late father and the king himself.
Cambridge, 2008. Teaching history at Trinity College is Claire Donovan's dream come true - until one of her colleagues is found dead on the banks of the River Cam. The only key to the professor's unsolved murder is a seventeenth-century diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king's mistress. With help from the eclectic collections of Cambridge's renowned libraries, Claire and historian Andrew Kent follow the clues Devlin left behind, uncovering secrets of London's dark past and Cambridge's equally murky present, and discovering that events of three hundred years ago may still have consequences today. . .
A suspenseful and richly satisfying tale brimming with sharply observed historical detail, The Devlin Diary brings past and present to vivid life. With wit and grace, Christi Phillips holds readers spellbound with an extraordinary novel of secrets, obsession, and the haunting power of the past. (from the book cover)
My thoughts: I used the synopsis from the book cover because I did not think I would be able to do this book justice. Where it says richly above I have to agree. That is the word that I was going to use to portray this book was rich. Rich language, rich detail, rich character development. You get the idea. It was so wonderful to read - with the attention that was paid to detail and history. I loved the way it weaved in and out between the present and the past. The characters from both centuries were very well-rounded and I was immediately engaged in the story line.
I knew that Christi Phillips had written a previous novel - The Rossetti Letter - but I didn't realize that it involved some of the same characters. I wish I had read the previous book, but only because I enjoyed this one so much. It definitely holds it own as a stand alone. I know that before the year is up I will be looking for The Rossetti Letter though!
About the author: Christi Phillips is the author of The Rossetti Letter, which has been translated into six foreign languages. Her research combines a few of her favorite things: old books, libraries, and travel. When she's not rummaging around in an archive or exploring the historic heart of a European city, she lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is at work on her next novel, set in France.
But Hannah has a special knowledge that Secretary of State Lord Alrington desperately needs. At the king's Machiavellian court, Hannah attracts the attention of two men, charming courtier Ralph Mantagu and anatomist Dr. Edward Strathern, as well as the attention of th epowerful College of Physicians, which views her work as criminal. When two influential courtiers are found brutally murdered, their bodies inscribed with arcane symbols, Hannah is drawn into a dangerous investigation by Dr. Strathern, who believes the murders conceal a far-reaching conspiracy that may include Hannah's late father and the king himself.
Cambridge, 2008. Teaching history at Trinity College is Claire Donovan's dream come true - until one of her colleagues is found dead on the banks of the River Cam. The only key to the professor's unsolved murder is a seventeenth-century diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king's mistress. With help from the eclectic collections of Cambridge's renowned libraries, Claire and historian Andrew Kent follow the clues Devlin left behind, uncovering secrets of London's dark past and Cambridge's equally murky present, and discovering that events of three hundred years ago may still have consequences today. . .
A suspenseful and richly satisfying tale brimming with sharply observed historical detail, The Devlin Diary brings past and present to vivid life. With wit and grace, Christi Phillips holds readers spellbound with an extraordinary novel of secrets, obsession, and the haunting power of the past. (from the book cover)
My thoughts: I used the synopsis from the book cover because I did not think I would be able to do this book justice. Where it says richly above I have to agree. That is the word that I was going to use to portray this book was rich. Rich language, rich detail, rich character development. You get the idea. It was so wonderful to read - with the attention that was paid to detail and history. I loved the way it weaved in and out between the present and the past. The characters from both centuries were very well-rounded and I was immediately engaged in the story line.
I knew that Christi Phillips had written a previous novel - The Rossetti Letter - but I didn't realize that it involved some of the same characters. I wish I had read the previous book, but only because I enjoyed this one so much. It definitely holds it own as a stand alone. I know that before the year is up I will be looking for The Rossetti Letter though!
About the author: Christi Phillips is the author of The Rossetti Letter, which has been translated into six foreign languages. Her research combines a few of her favorite things: old books, libraries, and travel. When she's not rummaging around in an archive or exploring the historic heart of a European city, she lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is at work on her next novel, set in France.
The Devlin Diary
Publisher/Publication Date: Pocket Books, May 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-2739-8
427 pages
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