TRUST NO ONE

A modern-day thriller rooted in ancient alchemy.

Attackers slit a woman’s throat in Norway as her captive husband refuses to divulge the location of a unique book. The man was the Twelfth Keeper of the strange tome, which he’s already spirited away to the Thirteenth Keeper, a professor at the University of Exeter in England. Fearing he will be discovered, the professor urgently passes it to Sharyn Karr, an American graduate student in witchcraft. (Yes, that’s a real thing.) She must take the book, never open it, and keep it safe. “Trust no one,” he admonishes. Soon after, the professor is found in the Old Library with a dagger in his heart. The book has quite a provenance: It’s the work of 18th-century alchemist Comte de Saint-Germain, “a man who does not die, and who knows everything.” Initially entrusted to a woman close to Marie Antoinette, its pages are “suffused with a combustible elixir” that will ignite should anyone attempt to force it open. It’s so important because it contains a map and three adages that contain the secret to immortality. The Confrérie, or Brotherhood, are willing to kill for a secret that extends life and betters the human condition. (Wait, what?) The object of their lust is bound in copper and leather, with a mysterious, intricately decorated crystalline orb that locks it. So Karr and a few friends—whom she trusts despite the warning—go on the run. “For truth be told,” she muses, “what harm could come from a book?” Certainly none from this enjoyable, high-energy thriller, but likely death from possessing Saint-Germain’s combustible creation. The friends go to the Tower of London, brave a fierce blizzard in Italy, and find ancient, disused caves in the Dolomite mountains, but their enemies know where to look. One of the scoundrels is a cardinal from the Vatican, bless his heart. Readers will like the raven that’s fed blood-soaked biscuits and the lynx that enters the fray.

Fans of Dan Brown and Clive Cussler will love this book.