Equinox

Oxford, 2006: a young woman is found brutally murdered, her throat cut.Her heart has been removed and in its place lies an apparently ancient gold coin. Twenty-four hours later, another woman is found. The MO is identical, except that this time her brain has been removed, and a silver coin lies glittering in the bowl of her skull.

The police are baffled but when police photographer Philip Bainbridge and his estranged lover Laura Niven become involved, they discover that these horrific, ritualistic murders are not confined to the here and now. And a shocking story begins to emerge which intertwines Sir Isaac Newton, one of seventeenth-century England's most powerful figures, with a deadly conspiracy which echoes down the years to the present day, as lethal now as it was then.

Before long those closest to Laura are in danger, and she finds herself the one person who can rewrite history; the only person who can stop the killer from striking again ...

Michael White's a remarkable man - ex pop star (he was a member of The Thompson Twins in the 80's), science lecturer, bestselling popular science writer and now novelist. He's still only in his early 40's. He lives in Australia and has 4 small children.

He is a bestselling non-fiction author of many books published in dozens of languages - STEPHEN HAWKING: a Life in Science; ASIMOV: The Unauthorised Life; ISAAC NEWTON: The Last Sorcerer; LEONARDO: The First Scientist; THE POPE AND THE HERETIC; TOLKEIN: A Biography; MACHIAVELLI: A Man Misunderstood; FRUITS OF WAR; C S LEWIS: The Boy who Chronicled Narnia. GALLILEO: Antichrist is still be to published by Weidenfeld.