The Renaissance Manuscript: A Novel
Author: Harold Allen
Genre: Speculative Historical Fiction
Tagline: Is It a Hoax or a Revelation?
Description: A compelling marriage of the bestselling The DaVinci Code and the Pulitzer Prize winning A Confederacy of Dunces, this novel is based on the most mysterious manuscript in the world. Is it a hoax or a revelation?
Basic plot: Last Night Ben Hauser’s best friend was killed. Today an alphabet soup of government agencies is pursuing him. They think he knows a secret that could change the world balance of power. Ben, a professor of Medieval History at a small Midwestern college, knows only that it has something to do with the Voynich Manuscript. Had his dead friend discovered the secret to this manuscript? Ben, his former girlfriend, and a teacher from the Chicago inner city set out to discover who killed his friend and why. The trio traces a bizarre zigzag course across the United States and over the Atlantic Ocean that leads to the British Museum in London where they discover a truth that dates back to the beginning of time.
Journey back into the mists of ancient time and explore the possibilities of the Voynich Manuscript. Your companions will be:
Ben Houser: Short, balding and diffident, a professor of Ancient History is anything but a hero as he stumbles his way past a bevy of government agents convinced he is more than he appears to be. Maybe they are right.
Sophie White: Sophie was born and raised in Chicago. Her children are grown and she came to the university to accept a scholarship to study in the graduate program in Education. Her last husband died a violent death and she doesn’t want to see the same thing happen to Ben. After thirty years as a middle school teacher in the south side of Chicago, this intimidating black lady is afraid of no one and nothing…almost nothing.
Natasha Solkol: After the precipitous death of both of her parents within six months, she broke off her relationship with Ben until she could deal with a grief deep enough to drown a kitten. Are there are facts about their deaths she’s not telling? Now she is trying to help Ben discover the reason for the murder of his best friend.
The Voynich Manuscript: Alfred Hitchcock would have called it the “MacGuffin.” It is the plot element that catches the reader’s attention and drives the plot forward.
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