EQUINOX

UK TOP TEN BESTSELLER

"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.

EQUINOX is Michael White's first novel. It caused a sensation at the 2005 Frankfurt book fair and was sold on a partial manuscript by Michael's agent Carole Blake at Blake Friedmann in London. It will appear in 25 languages between autumn 2006 and summer 2007.

Report from the Frankfurt book fair 2005:

FAIR DEALING
Liz Thomson in Frankfurt

.....a number of publishers spoke of Greek offers and deals - Carole Blake was surprised to find herself conducting a Greek auction in which Livanis, fat on the proceeds of The Da Vinci Code, emerged the winner. "I didn't know there were enough Greek publishers to actually hold an auction," she quipped. The novel in question was Equinox by Michael White, an internationally published best-selling author of non-fiction and one-time member of the Thompson Twins (the subject of a memoir), White has penned biographies of, amongst others, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Isaac Newton and Galileo. His most recent book, The Fruits of War, about the technological advances bequeathed to us by war has just been published. A Brit now living in Australia who, in addition to being a pop star, has been a science lecturer, White wrote 200 pages and a synopsis for what is described as an up-market Da Vinci Code, set in the world of science. The main story is set in contemporary Oxford - and the mystery is what connects a murder with others in the 1800s and the 1600s. The planets have something to do with it, as does Sir Isaac who, in the 1600s, was experimenting with alchemy in the tunnels below Oxford. Rights were snapped up by Roca in Spain and Bra Bocker in Sweden ahead of Frankfurt, where the novel swiftly became Blake's own book of the Fair. Sonzogno pre-empted Italian rights for 50,000 euros, while the Dutch auction closed at 75,000 euros to Uniboek, the Greek at 12,000 euros to Livanis. Bulgarian rights were also sold, and auctions are ongoing in France, Germany, Japan and Russia. "I've never sold a book so fast when I've got only half a manuscript and there's no British sale," Blake remarked, surprised at the lack of action on the home front, which she ascribed to so much uncertainty in retail. But it was clear that foreign action had begun to galvanise the Brits and the Americans, as well as the Australians of course.

Additional reporting by Roger Tagholm and Ralph Baxter

Sunday 30 October, 2005