BOOK GROUPIE: Honest, Pythagorean math makes good reading
Back in high school geometry class, I learned the Pythagorean Theorem, a2 + b2= c2. As a teenager, I would’ve bet I’d never enjoy a novel based on Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician for whom the theorem is named. And I would’ve lost that bet. Kevin Guilfoile’s “The Thousand” fuses Pythagorean mathematics, as well as science, philosophy and history into a thought-provoking thriller.
In 530 B.C., Pythogoras sailed to what is now Italy. When he arrived, he convinced 1,000 men and women to abandon their lives and follow him. The resulting cult searched for a mathematical theory of everything.
There is well-researched evidence of the cult’s existence, and several titles dedicated to the subject are listed at the back of “The Thousand.”
With this fascinating group as the backbone of his modern-day story, Guilfoile creates a cast of characters that’s hard to forget. Each character is linked to fictitious descendants of Pythagoras’s original cult. The descendants, who call themselves The Thousand, are divided into two distinct factions. The factions are in the midst of a feud when the story begins.
One unknowing descendant is Canada Gold. When Canada is a child, she has a neurostimulator installed in her body for medical reasons. Canada’s father, a celebrated Chicago-based musical composer, is shot to death while she is in the hospital. The composer’s lawyer is the only witness to the crime, and he maintains he did not recognize the murderer. The investigating police detective doesn’t believe him.
Years pass, and Canada is a grown woman living in Las Vegas. Her neurostimulator gives her a photographic memory and other enhanced mental abilities. She uses these abilities to simultaneously fight crime and beat casinos. Canada lives an interesting, but mostly peaceful, life in Las Vegas, until The Thousand comes calling.
Canada, her father’s attorney, and the police detective who investigated her father’s murder, are all caught in the crossfire of The Thousand’s fighting factions. Also thrown into the fight is a former lover of Canada’s, Wayne Jennings, a security foreman at Canada’s favorite casino. Wayne is first on the scene of a murder committed by The Thousand. The group frames Wayne for the murder, and he is chased from Las Vegas to Chicago by the police and The Thousand.
Does Wayne arrive in the Windy City quickly enough to help Canada save herself? The answer is in the book. No mathematical theorems are required to find it.
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Miller welcomes book suggestions. Read her
blog at www.anitalaydonmiller.blogspot.com
or e-mail anita.l.miller@att.net.
