Descartes' Dog - Paperback

by Dan Whipple (Author)

Descartes' Dog is an intellectual historical mystery novel. The seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes uses his method for uncovering truth to solve the murder of his former lover. In this pursuit, he becomes entangled in the violent politics of the Thirty Years War and the target of a secret and mysterious group, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. This portion of the novel is set primarily in 17th century Netherlands.

There is a parallel story, set in 2019 Boulder, Colorado, in which a philosophy professor stumbles across Descartes' Memoir, lost for 400 years. Planning to use this spectacular document to advance his career, he is unexpectedly threatened by members of this same brotherhood which had threatened Descartes in the 1600s. This society has survived in secret for 400 years, searching for a book that will give them untold power and wealth. Our professor attempts to defraud them, by pretending to hold the key to the philosophers stone, the Rosicrucians' long-sought key to eternal wealth, vast lifespans and spiritual enlightenment. In the end, the real book with the formula for the philosophers stone is discovered, hiding in plain sight. Violence ensues over its possession. The story becomes a battle between magic and rationality from the early Age of Reason to the modern world.