Yale University’s Beinecke Library possesses the 15th-century Voynich manuscript, a codex so mysterious and untranslatable that it would stump even The Da Vinci Code’s Robert Langdon. But Macmillan (The Manor House) daringly incorporates this unique book as a possible clue to an even more cryptic ancient text in a twisty feminist thriller that features deadly secret societies, a sleuthing scholar, a Scotland Yard detective, and an action-packed quest that begins in Scotland and ends in Italy. On a remote Scottish island, Eleanor Bruton, a member of the Order of St. Katherine, or the Kats, is studying an antique piece of embroidery for clues to a valuable title, The Book of Wonders, when she is brutally murdered. Her killers work for a rival women’s group, the Larks. While the Kats seek power over men through their traditional roles as wives and mothers, the equally ruthless Larks represent feminist modern women. Caught unwittingly between the two groups is Anya Brown, a brilliant, newly minted PhD., who has been hired by the elite Institute of Medieval Manuscripts in St. Andrews to study a private collection of rare materials. In London, DC Clio Spicer suspects that the “accidental” death of her mentor might be connected to Bruton’s killing. Despite the anticlimactic conclusion, Macmillan takes readers on an exciting adventure that will please Katherine Neville and Dan Brown fans.
