“Many and wondrous are the charms of this witty, suspenseful and enchanting book… One eagerly awaits whatever brainteasing concoction Ms. Jacobs comes up with next.”
—Wall Street Journal
The Stars Turned Inside Out
A Novel
Description
“Many and wondrous are the charms of this witty, suspenseful, and enchanting book.” —The Wall Street Journal
The discovery of a suspicious death at a famous Swiss physics laboratory sparks a mystery that merges science, philosophy, and the high-stakes race to unlock the fundamental nature of our universe in this thrilling new novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of the “hugely entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) The Last Equation of Isaac Severy.
Deep beneath the ground outside of Geneva, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes subatomic particles at breathtaking speeds, a startling discovery is made when the tunnel is down for maintenance: the body of Howard Anderby, a brilliant and recently arrived young physicist, who appears to have been irradiated by the collider. But security shows no evidence of him entering the tunnel, and for all of the lab’s funding, its video surveillance is sorely lacking.
Eager to keep the death under wraps until more is known, CERN brings in private investigator Sabine Leroux, who has her own ties to the lab’s administration—and more than a passing interest in particle physics. Meanwhile, Howard’s colleague and budding love interest Eve, shattered by his death, determines to reconcile what she knew of Howard with his gruesome fate, wondering if she could have done something to stop it.
As Sabine digs into petty academic rivalries and personal secrets, an escalating international physics arms race heightens tensions and fuels speculation of a mole at the lab—throwing into question loyalties and revealing what sort of knowledge may be worth killing for.
Reviews
"Nova Jacobs returns with another brainy, brilliant murder mystery."
—BookPage
"Who knew particle physics could be so bewitching?"
—Los Angeles Times
“Nova Jacobs’s novel is a gripping murder mystery. But it's also so much more—it's an invitation into the secretive world of CERN, an exploration of the limits of science, and a haunting reminder of how easily we can be made to believe the unthinkable. A dark and absorbing novel, The Stars Turned Inside Out will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the scientific method and academic competition.”
—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters
