BENJAMIN FRANKLIN & THE VANISHING MESSENGER IBD

Sinopse

Benjamin Franklin & The Vanishing Messenger is the concluding novel in a trilogy of historical detective stories featuring Franklin, AmericaâÇÖs most versatile and consequential genius.áHe was a research scientist whose findings on the nature of electricity were compared to those of Isaac Newton on gravity.áHe was also the only American to sign all three instruments of AmericaâÇÖs independence from the British Empire: the Declaration of Independence, the American military treaty with France, and the peace treaty with Britain.áAs if that wasnâÇÖt enough versatility, he was an ingenious inventor for whose Glass Harmonica both Mozart and Beethoven composed music.áááBecause a detective uses a methodology similar to that of a scientist: gathering information on which to base an hypothesis in order to test it, it was natural to imagine Franklin in the role of a detective.áAs governor of Pennsylvania, Franklin hosted the Convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution and got it to agree that preventing 'leaks' was imperative to the success of the Convention.áThe main feature of the security system he invented was that no delegate to it could put in writing any of its proceeding.áBut in this novel one delegate does write a letter that is full of sensitive information on the ConventionâÇÖs proceedings, and the messenger he pays to deliver his letter to another delegate vanishes.ááGeorge Washington, the ConventionâÇÖs president, learns of this threatening development and confidentially consults those whoâÇÖve had the most to do with organizing the Convention--Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton--to see how the missing messenger and what he carried might be found.áFranklin volunteers to try to repair this breech in the security system with the help of his trusted assistant in the two previous detective stories, Captain James Jamison.áBenjamin Franklin & The Vanishing Messenger is the story of that investigation.