Product Description

Summer 1795, and London is thronging with French emigres. Rumours of spies and intrigue are rife. One faction under suspicion is the Montpellier circle, a group of astronomers searching for a planet they call Selene. Jonathan Absey of the Home Office is charged with smashing the French spy ring.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462718 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Charles Palliser
‘I found this novel unputdownable. The complex narrative is brilliantly handled to keep the reader guessing right to the end… fascinating…’

Guardian
‘Unputdownable…a glittering tale’

Observer
'An engrossing read and a rich, pungent evocation of the period’

Customer Reviews

A rattling good read!
I picked this up in the airport and spent my holiday engrossed in the political intrigues and revolutionary fervour of London in 1795. An Astronomy spy thriller littered with prostitutes and murders - what more could you ask for? I recommend this book as a thoroughly absorbing and intelligent read.

Fantastic - well researched & stunning plot
Hitorical fiction is a genre with a few gems and a lot of dross. What characterises the bad books is bad research and, often, gross historical inaccuracy. What characterises the good books is historic fidelity. Of course, the great books have a cracking story too. This, in my view, is a great book. The plot twists and turns - with the themes of treachery, spying, murder and astronomy set against the backdrop of England in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The characterisations are exceptionally strong and it is easy to develop a strong identity with each of the main players - albeit that they range from the mad to the bad to the sad.

This is a tale of people following their consciences or personal quests who are manipulated by cynical puppetmasters. If there is one criticism, albeit a moderate one, it is the dialogue. It is very 20th/21st Century - and it leads one to look at the situations in the book from a relatively modern perspective. This does not spoil the read as an experience (maybe it knocks one of the points off the 5 star rating). What is clear is that the author has put a phenomenal amount of effort into getting this book just right and she has succeeded in doing so with distinction. I can't wait to see what comes from her pen next.

Spies, lies and star-gazers
For England, 1795 was something of an annus horribilis. With defeat in the Low Countries, sedition in the naval yards and republican sympathisers thickening the mix, Redfern sets this tale of murder, betrayal and obsession against a dark screen of national fear, uncertainty and introspection.

The protagonists journey through a maze of bluff and counter measure to get to a single, concluding centre, propelled (some towards disaster) by their respective obsessions: Jonathon Absey subordinates the search for a killer on London's streets to his quest to find the killer of his own daughter; Guy de Montpellier erodes mentally and physically, scouring the night sky for a lost planet he believes he once saw; Pierre Raultier jeopardises his own life for the unrelenting pull of a hopeless love. It is obsession, and loss through obsession, that brings these people together, full tilt into the boiling pot of war, politics and espionage that polarised republican France and royalist England.

The author renders a London of mud, blood and danger, a depiction that supports the hardship, tragedy and hopelessness that marks the lives of everyone in it. The superbly detailed - and diverting - astronomical references offer some light to those observers keen to forget more 'grounded' troubles (most of Redfern's characters have at least a cursory knowledge of the stars).

Though the narrative muddies a little at times and the denouement is rather abrupt, "The Music of the Spheres" is a must-buy for anyone keen to add to their existing stock of historical fiction.