Book Notices | The School of Night by Louise Bayard

Louis Bayard, The School of Night

Amazon   In this 2010 novel, Louis Bayard twists the story of a modern treasure hunt around a centuries-old romance. "The School of Night" refers to a secret group of 16th-century intellectuals—among them Sir Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe, and a figure probably less familiar to most readers, Tom Harriot, around whom the historical part of Bayard's story revolves. There's romance in the modern story too—and a treasure map and an over-the-top collector of antiquities and a few dead bodies. Honestly, I didn't care very much about the modern-day hunt enough to try to figure things out myself. The historical romance grabbed my attention a bit more, but mostly I enjoyed Bayard's writing. That's what kept me reading through the early stages of the book when I might otherwise have abandoned it. A decent read (with an ending that may be a bit too far out there).