The Stars Turned Inside Out

A Novel

By: Nova Jacobs

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

“Many and wondrous are the charms of this witty, suspenseful, and enchanting book.” —The Wall Street Journal

The discovery of a suspicious death at a famous Swiss physics laboratory sparks a mystery that merges science, philosophy, and the high-stakes race to unlock the fundamental nature of our universe in this thrilling new novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of the “hugely entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) The Last Equation of Isaac Severy.

Deep beneath the ground outside of Geneva, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes subatomic particles at breathtaking speeds, a startling discovery is made when the tunnel is down for maintenance: the body of Howard Anderby, a brilliant and recently arrived young physicist, who appears to have been irradiated by the collider. But security shows no evidence of him entering the tunnel, and for all of the lab’s funding, its video surveillance is sorely lacking.

Eager to keep the death under wraps until more is known, CERN brings in private investigator Sabine Leroux, who has her own ties to the lab’s administration—and more than a passing interest in particle physics. Meanwhile, Howard’s colleague and budding love interest Eve, shattered by his death, determines to reconcile what she knew of Howard with his gruesome fate, wondering if she could have done something to stop it.

As Sabine digs into petty academic rivalries and personal secrets, an escalating international physics arms race heightens tensions and fuels speculation of a mole at the lab—throwing into question loyalties and revealing what sort of knowledge may be worth killing for.

©2024 Nova Jacobs (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Good reader, flimsy story

Deeply implausible story, full of people saying and doing unlikely things. The premise - skulduggery at a particle accelerator lab - is good, but the execution, including a foray into mysticism, not so much. The reader did a great job with what she had to work with.

The writing

This is the second Nova Jacobs novel I've listened to on Audible and it's even better than the first. It kept me guessing until the very end and was so incredibly well researched.