Antonio & Isaac — Todd Shimoda

In this genre-bending, speculative historical novel set in Europe at the height of the Age of Enlightenment, Austrian composer and spy, Phillipe Wolf, sets off an incendiary clash between Isaac Newton and Antonio Stradivari over how to create a perfect violin. Can science and mathematics alone be enough? Or is it a much deeper knowledge that Stradivari will take to his grave? In love with Newton's niece, Catherine Barton, Wolf and Barton compose a perfect score for a perfect violin, while Wolf spies on her jealous employer, infiltrates a violent counterfeiting ring, and leads a surprise attack inside the enemy's fortified citadel. On every page there is surprise, insight, and suspense, and in the end, perhaps, solves the enduring mystery of why 300-year-old Stradivarius violins remain the most revered. With several Newtonesque drawings by the author.