Imagine finding a mystical book that offers the gift of everlasting life. Would you look inside?
In The Immortal’s Secret, art merges with magic to explore the seductive allure of eternal life. Dr. Benjamin Mann, a curator at the Louvre who is recovering from cancer, is thrust into an unexpected adventure when his eccentric grandfather, Josiah Mann, vanishes.
Desperate for clues, Benjamin turns to Josiah’s treasured possession: a portrait called The Immortal, painted by the Renaissance master Andrea Sartore. In a violent rage, Benjamin rips The Immortal from her frame and finds a golden book—a treasure Josiah has been looking for since his youth.
The discovery leads Benjamin on a journey from Paris to Venice to the Sinai Desert, where he meets a host of characters who hold clues about Josiah. As Benjamin delves deeper into The Immortal and the secret embedded in her golden book, his journey becomes a crucible, forcing him to confront his life decisions, vulnerabilities, and regrets.
Edmiston covers a lot of international—and temporal—ground in this suspenseful sophomore novel (after Confessions from the Cubicle) of alchemy, ancient gods, and lost artifacts, where the present collides with the past in a maelstrom of secrets and revelations. When Benjamin meets the enigmatic Cle, a past friend of his grandfather’s whose knowledge of the painting is uncanny, he finds himself whisked away on a cross-continent adventure with her, while learning that there is more to his mysterious companion than meets the eye. The backstory unfolds slowly as Benjamin uncovers the secrets of his grandfather’s past, leading to a cascade of epiphanies that alter everything Benjamin knows about his grandfather—and the world.
Edmiston balances on the knife-edge between tension and wonder throughout, never sacrificing the story’s meticulous historical detail while still delivering enough suspense to keep readers engaged. The perfectly balanced blend of spirituality, romance, and mystery interlaces with lessons on “the boundary between light and darkness… [and] weak souls whose energy can be easily drawn to evil,” making this as profound as it is action-packed. Fans of historical fiction paired with a sliver of fantasy will find much to enjoy in the twists and turns of Benjamin’s quest for the truth.
Takeaway: Historical fiction and fantasy interlace in a timeless quest for truth.
Comparable Titles: Daniel G. Miller’s The Tree of Knowledge, Will Adams’s The Alexander Cipher.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
