The Secrets of Life and Death

I won a copy of this book as a Goodreads first reads five-year. It's a very good 3.5 star book.

The story starts with the discovery of the body of a young girl covered in strange drawing. Felix Guichard, a professor of occult religions is called to identify the drawings. His research leads him to the work of John Dee and Edward Kelley, two 16th century alchemists and to Jackdaw Hammond, who is holding on to secrets about the alchemists and the dead girl.

This story has a lot going on, the Countess of Bathory, Vatican inquisition, dual timeline stories, a little romance...but it ties most of it together nicely. I was pulling for Jack to triumph, she's a very engaging character.

The book is well paced for suspense, both in the present story of Jack and Felix and the past story of Edward and Dr Dee. I was tempted to race through but also wanted to savor a great story. The only bad note in the book was the romance between Jack and Felix. This underdeveloped and in the end unfinished. It didn't detract from the story but didn't add anything either.