The Geographer'S Library (A Novel)

b" Jon Fasman's dizzyingly plotted intellectual thriller suggests a marriage\nbetween Dan Brown and Donna Tartt. When reporter Paul Tomm is assigned to\ninvestigate the mysterious death of a reclusive academic, he finds himself\npursuing leads that date back to the twelfth century and the theft of alchemical\ninstruments from the geographer of the Sicilian court. Now someone is trying to\nretrieve them. Interspersed with the present action are the stories of the men\nand women who came to possess those charmed--and sometimes cursed--artifacts,\nwhich have powers that go well beyond the transmutation of lead into gold.\nDeftly combining history, magic, suspense, and romance--and as handsomely\nillustrated as an "