Andrew Pessin is a local Connecticut author with a brand new historical murder mystery based on real events: The Irrationalist
Description:
Paperback: 508 pages
Publisher: Open Books (May 23, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0998427446
ISBN-13: 978-0998427447
Buy on Amazon
The Irrationalist
An historical murder mystery based on real events.
Who would want to murder the world’s most famous philosopher?
Turns out: nearly everyone.
In 1649, Descartes was invited by the Queen of Sweden to become her Court Philosopher. Though he was the world’s leading philosopher, his life had by this point fallen apart. He was 53, penniless, living in exile in the United Provinces, alone. With much trepidation but not much choice, he arrived in Stockholm in mid-October.
Shortly thereafter he was dead.
Enter Adrien Baillet. A likeable misfit with a mysterious backstory, he arrives just as the French Ambassador desperately needs an impartial Frenchman to prove that Descartes died of natural causes.
But solving the mystery of Descartes’s death (Baillet soon learns) requires first solving the mystery of Descartes’s life, with all its dangerous secrets … None of it is easy, as nearly everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted.
But Baillet somehow perseveres, surprising everyone as he figures it all out—all the way to the explosive end.
About Andrew Pessin:
Andrew Pessin is Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College, with degrees from Yale and Columbia—though he is most popular for his appearances as “The Genius” on the Late Show with David Letterman. Author of many academic articles and books, as well as four philosophy books, one textbook, and one audio course aimed at a general audience, his book, Uncommon Sense: The Strangest Ideas from the Smartest Philosophers, was named an “Outstanding Academic Title of 2013” by Choice. He has spent two decades teaching at liberal arts colleges in addition to speaking about philosophy to many non-philosophical audiences, so he has plenty of experience making philosophy entertaining, accessible, yet provocative and most of all fun. Recently he also published two novels. The Second Daughter, written under the pen name J. Jeffrey—read the novel to find out why the pen name!—was a Semi-Finalist in Literary Fiction at The Kindle Book Review Book awards, and he greatly enjoyed meeting (either in person or over Skype) with the many bookclubs that adopted it. His brand new novel, The Irrationalist, is based on the truly sad life and (possible) tragic murder of the famous philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes. In his spare time Pessin composes and can occasionally be coaxed to perform amusing philosophy songs.
Andrew will be happy to meet at any local book clubs!
