Scarlett is a university graduate with a master's in biophysics and a chip on her shoulder. Artie is a retired professor of art history. They've been hired by a wealthy collector to authenticate a cache of paintings discovered under the floorboards of an Italian townhouse. And they've taken an instant--and intense--dislike to each other.

The calculus shifts when they stumble on something unexpected--a manuscript written by Leonardo da Vinci's last pupil. It's an astonishing firsthand account of the great master as he grapples with a murder at the prestigious Aldine Press. It's a mystery Leonardo is compelled to solve, or else his notebooks may never be published.

Scarlett and Artie fear a similar fate might await the manuscript if their client gets his acquisitive hands on it. He'll bury it deep in his vault, and the world will once again be deprived of Leonardo's genius. They put aside their differences and make a pact: they'll steal the manuscript. They land a publisher, change their names, disguise their looks, and set off across northern Italy in a frantic race to publish the story and disappear for good.

But have they underestimated the deadly resolve of their client?

Carefully researched and faithfully rendered, Octavo is a breathtaking historical mystery, a pulse-pounding modern thriller, and a loving evocation of Leonardo's times, penned with indelible characters and studded with wondrous discoveries.