This is a 2nd novel from author Nova Jacobs -- and isn't that a perfect name with the title of this book
(nova means "a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months.") In this book the title--as best I can tell--refers to the experience of falling in love. The setting is the CERN laboratories and campus on the Swiss/French border, where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resides. One of the central characters is Eve Marsh, a postdoc there and falls in love with a new postdoc name Howard Anderby who is assigned to her "group" that is looking for new particles. Howard's claims to fame are these: he's a brilliant astrophysicist and thinker, his aunt was one of the key designers of the LHC, and he has just spent a year working in China, which is attempting to build a significantly larger LHC.When Howard is found dead from radiation poisoning inside the LHC underground tunnels, puzzles abound. The LHC was supposedly shut down at the time for maintenance. He somehow got into these secure tunnels without ever passing through one of the security checkpoints. What was he doing there in the first place--was this suicide or murder. Part of the problem lies with the underfunded security systems at CERN which only take still pictures of the LHC tunnels every 60 seconds, rather than providing contuous video coverage. So someone else could have been in the tunnels if they were very quick.
To avoid negative publicity, the CERN director brings in private investigator and good friend from Cambridge days, Sabine Laroux. Through interviews, Sabine uncovers plenty of professional rivalries and resentments. To thicken the soup, it turns out that Howard had discovered evidence of China having access to reams of data from the LHC's "Atlas" collector, so he may have been targeted from outside the campus. Publishers Weekly calls this an "engrossing whodunit" and concludes their review by saying, "Jacobs bestows even minor characters with such convincing motives that
the plot's momentum never slows, no matter how complex things get.
Golden age mystery fans will love this."
Booklist offers, "Jacobs ...elevates the
death-in-the-workplace trope to staggering heights in this science-based
thriller that fuses physics and philosophy in mind-bending ways....As her high-minded cast of characters seeks the answers, Jacobs delves
into subjects as deep as the nature of the universe and the space-time
continuum and as quotidian as romantic love and professional jealousy,
giving careful readers much to contemplate." In their brief review, the Wall Street Journal gushes, "Many and wondrous are the charms of this witty, suspenseful and enchanting book..." The Los Angeles Times opens their interview/ review by quipping, "Who knew particle physics could be so bewitching?"
There is a conversation with Nova Jacobs on You Tube.
