Two parallel stories. One during the Third Crusade, the conquest of Cyprus by Richard and his marriage to Berengaria of Navarra. A (fictional) attendant to Richard’s bride possesses a copy of Alhazen’s Book of Optics which she reads and comments together with her lover, the Greek monk Alexios. She is suspected for the murder of another Berengaria’s attendant and is obliged to flee, seeking refuge to the famous scholar Maimonides and leaving behind her a Latin translation of Alhazen’s book. The second story takes place in the 1950s. Three experts are invited to Cyprus in order to evaluate the manuscript, which has been recently discovered in a monastery. A second murder takes place, mysteriously related to the manuscript and the famous spherical mirrors problem it contains.

Polis, 2016, 328 p.