THE MISSING DA VINCI MANUSCRIPTS & DEATH IN GENEVA: THE MISSING DA VINCI MANUSCRIPTS, #1

By Joshua Elliot James

When Arcadia Jones, a Harvard professor and curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City receives a scrap of what appears to be an old manuscript, she has it carbon dated and confirms that it is from the 1500’s During research, her hunch suggests that the sample is from one of da Vinci’s lost books that were stolen from his protégé, after his death. There is no accompanying letter, only a return address, so her only course of action is to travel to Rome and contact the sender, who corroborates her intuition, and tells her that there are eighty books full of notes and diagrams of his inventions which were discovered at the Roman Baths in England. She estimates their worth at millions of pounds, but he informs Arcadia that they were stolen from him - except one page. A clue suggests that a local bar patron may be the culprit, which leads her to Geneva and puts her hot on his tail and a separate thief and murderer who leads her to Panama. Will she be able to find the murderer and get back the manuscripts?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Elliot James
• Release date: Oct 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781501425141

Book preview

THE MISSING DA VINCI MANUSCRIPTS

& DEATH IN GENEVA

Episode 1

Author: Joshua Elliot James

Contents:

Also by Joshua Elliot James:

About the Author:

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Letter

Chapter 2: Visit To London

Chapter 3: The Mysterious Man From Rome

Chapter 4: Late Night Detective Work

Chapter 5: Back On Track

Chapter 6: The Tango Competition

Chapter 7: The Suspects

Chapter 8: Murder In Geneva

Chapter 9: Panama And One Purple Bag

Chapter 10: Back To Rome Meeting The Traitor

Chapter 11: Retrieving Valuable Manuscripts

Preview Episode 2:

Copyright:

Also by Joshua Elliot James:

Arcadia And The Antikythera Mechanism

Arcadia and the Antikythera Mechanism, Episode 1 

Arcadia and the Antikythera Mechanism, Episode 2: The Secret Cave of El Pilar

Arcadia and the Antikythera Mechanism, Episode 3: The Egyptian Apocalypse

Arcadia And The Mysterious Tablet from Göbekli Tep

Arcadia and the Mysterious Tablet from Göbekli Tep, Episode 1

Arcadia and the Mysterious Tablet from Göbekli Tep, Episode 2: The Eye of the Beast

The Missing da Vinci Manuscripts

The missing da Vinci Manuscripts & Death in Geneva, Episode 1

The missing da Vinci Manuscripts & Murder in Spain, Episode 2

About the Author:

Find out more about the author at amazon.com/author/joshuaelliotjames

Follow Joshua Elliot James on Twitter

Become a fan of Joshua Elliot James on Facebook

Find out more at www.joshuaelliotjames.com

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Letter

The envelope contains a small corner of paper, apparently torn from a manuscript, and a note that reads ‘If you want more, come to 60-12 Piazza de Castagno 1, Rome, Italy, 81053.’ There is no mention of a date or time. I flip the envelope and scan for clues- it is addressed specifically to me ‘Ms. Arcadia Jones’, Curator, Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY. 11201; there is nothing else but the postmark of Roma.

I’m optimistic, because the sender expects me to date the sample and become excited enough to pursue the lead, so I head to schedule a test with my assistant Sebastian Sabourin.

Three days. He tells me.

Can you work it in earlier? I beg, I have a feeling it’s important.

He scans his work schedule. I guess I can bump ‘Harrison’ – he was called away for two weeks. Okay, I’ll have it tomorrow – say around noon.

I hand him the corner of paper and plant a kiss on his cheek. Sebastian, you’re wonderful!

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer carbon dating device performs impeccably and tells us that the scrap of parchment is dated circa 1510 plus or minus.

Okay – let’s get to work.

I’ll base my search engine on Italy and include a span of five years either side: I’m offered several starting points – The Great Flood of Rome, the Great Fire at the Rialto of Venice, the Medici restored to power, Florence was captured by the Spanish, Agrippa returned to Northern Italy... none of these stimulate my interest. Anyway they’re pretty well documented. No, there’s something missing...

Missing...

Now I get interested. What’s ‘missing’ from that period? Was that what somebody found? The search engine is not co-operative on finding ‘missing’ parameters, so I lean back in my chair, close my eyes and allow my imagination to run free. I’m in