I am a huge reader of British mysteries and there are quite a few excellent writers such as Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. But there are very few literate mysteries out there.



There are the classic ones such as Josephine Tey, whose Inspector Grant solved the mystery of the two princes in the Tower from a hospital bed. Then Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen, an Oxford don who solves the most delicious puzzles. Of course there is Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Whimsey who is as familiar with Shakespeare and the Cavalier Poets as he is with murder.



In addition there is the devine Sarah Caudwell whose lawyers solve complicated mysteries or Marianne MacDonald whose antiquarian bookseller is always running afoul of crime as well as the classics. Tey, Crispin, Caudwell, and Sayers have books in the top 100 greatest mysteries of all time.



Christine Poulson writes academic Cambridge mysteries now as well. But Rebecca Stott in this debut can easily join this Pantheon of literate, finely crafted and written works.



In taking over an academics' unfinished book on Newton a young woman becomes "entangled" between the 17th century and today. It seems that events that happened over 300 years ago have a direct bearing on events happening in Cambridge today. I loved the way Stott made both Cambridge of the 17th century as well as contemporary Cambridge come alive as one of the main characters and how she entangled the two to make reality a bit hazy and confused. In the end you, the reader, could decide what you thought really happened.



As with all really good books, it is hard to reduce this story into nice neat definitions. It is a mystery, a supernatural story, a love story and social commentary on animal rights and the response to terrorism, a story of friendship and an atmospheric ghost story. I loved every minute of it.