Someone is murdering the great astrophysicists, and it’s up to astronomer Stephen Shelby to find out why the secret of dark matter is worth killing for. A compelling, intelligent thriller that takes the reader from the icy heights of the ultra-modern Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea to the white temple of Palomar. Along the way Dr. Shelby will have to confront his own demons, and his continuing obsession with his former wife, who left him for an eccentric but brilliant Nobel laureate whose revolutionary theories may be fueling the hatred of the equally brilliant killer stalking the scientists. Love, honor, deception, untold riches, immortal fame. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Rodman Philbrick grew up on the New England coast, where he worked as a longshoreman and boat builder. For many years he wrote mysteries and detective novels. The Private Eye Writers of America nominated two of his T.D.Stash series as best detective novel and then selected Philbrick's 'Brothers & Sinners' as Best Novel in 1993. Writing under the pen name 'William R. Dantz' he has explored the near-future worlds of genetic engineering and hi-tech brain control in books like 'Hunger', 'Pulse', 'The Seventh Sleeper'. And 'Nine Levels Down'.
Inspired by the life of a boy who lived a few blocks away, he wrote 'Freak The Mighty', the award-winning young-adult novel, which has been translated into numerous languages and is now read in schools throughout the world. The book was adapted to the screen in 1998 as 'The Mighty', starring Sharon Stone, Gillian Anderson, James Gandolfini, Kieran Culkin, and Elden Henson.
Philbrick, a screenwriter as well as a novelist, is the author of a number of novels for young readers, including 'The Fire Pony', 'Max the Mighty', 'REM World', 'The Last Book In The Universe', 'The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds' and 'The Young Man And The Sea'. His recent novels for adults include 'Dark Matter', 'Coffins', and 'Taken'. He and his wife divide their time between Maine and the Florida Keys.