The Mistress and the Key

by Ben Mezrich

Overview

Benjamin Franklin's mysterious connection to Paul Revere and a cabal of powerful alchemists has been lost to history--until now.

Card shark Hailey Gordon and ex con Nick Patterson--fresh off uncovering one of the biggest secrets of the Revolutionary War alongside American history professor Adrian Jensen--now find themselves in Philadelphia, immersed in the history of Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. The Liberty Bell, Charles Willson Peale's Museum, and the Tomb of The Unknown Revolutionary Soldier are connected to Franklin in amazing ways. The more they discover, the more shocking the implications become.

The long buried secrets Hailey and Nick are chasing have previously only been known by a select few, who would prefer to keep it that way. A woman known as The Heiress--part of a mysterious organization called The Family--is one of these rare historians. After generations of members have failed before her, The Heiress has been tasked to finally unearth the alchemical secrets Revere and Franklin may have discovered during their lifetimes.

And she's not about to let Nick and Hailey get in her way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538754672
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/08/2024
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Ben Mezrich is the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires (adapted by Aaron Sorkin into the David Fincher film The Social Network), Bringing Down the House (adapted into the #1 box office hit film 21), The Antisocial Network, and many other bestselling books. His books have sold over six million copies worldwide.

Editorial Reviews

★ 2024-09-14
Alchemy stages a comeback in this fast-moving modern-day thriller.

In Philadelphia, a construction supervisor inspects a large underground space beneath a worksite and finds a mid-18th-century laboratory filled with beakers, oil lamps, hand cranks—and his two dead co-workers sitting in chairs. Then he’s attacked and killed by a man looking for an engraving of a kite and a key. Thus begins this oddball thriller whose characters seek a philosopher’s stone that will turn lead into gold. Mezrich loads the text with historical references to the likes of Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, Mozart, and Catharine Ray, one of Ben’s actual lady friends. He also offers new twists on the stories of the Liberty Bell and Franklin's famous experiment with a kite and a key. Present-day protagonists Nick Patterson and Hailey Gordon are in Boston on the run from the law, suspects in a string of art thefts including the big 1990 heist at the Gardner Museum. Nick is a nonviolent ex-con who gets his gunshot wound stitched up in the basement of a seedy dentist and later survives an encounter with the humongousTyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the Boston Museum of Science. Hailey faked her high-school records to gain admission to MIT and excelled there as a grad student in applied math while she paid her bills by counting cards. In the opposite corner is the evil La Nadie—Spanish forThe Nobody—who looks so ordinary that no one notices her until it’s too late. She works for the Family, which has ambitions both dastardly and grandiose. The frequent twists in this zany and well-researched story will keep the reader entertained and informed. If you’ve ever lain awake wondering about the Statue of Liberty’s innards, or how many rivets Gustave Eiffel used in the construction of his eponymous iron tower in Paris, or how a particular Mozart composition looks on an oscilloscope, Mezrich puts those and many more questions to rest. The ending hints at a sequel, which would be most welcome.

Light, quirky, and funny.

Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE MIDNIGHT RIDE:

“The Midnight Ride is one hell of a trip, a whirlwind tale of murder, mayhem, secret history, and the greatest art heist of all time. I’m a huge fan of Mezrich’s nonfiction books, and I totally devoured his foray into fiction. The guy is just an all-around amazing writer—and Hailey Gordon is a fabulous character. Highly recommended.”—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling coauthor of Bloodless

“A plot to savor. Witty, smart, detailed, and highly entertaining. The Midnight Ride is exactly what you’d expect from a master storyteller.”—Steve Berry, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Cotton Malone series

"Cinematic, immersive, and completely entertaining! With The Midnight Ride, Boston gets its own Da Vinci Code, and after you race through these irresistible pages, you will never look at the city the same way again. Impeccably researched and captivatingly told. Standing ovation for this terrific thriller!"—Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

"A fast ride, with casino hijinks, art heists, a college student looking for trouble, and a dangerous secret from the past. Talk about tense! Mezrich's book is fun with every twist and turn!"—R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

"Mezrich brings his high-energy . . . This one may very well be his best novel." —Booklist

From the Publisher