Pythagorean Crimes [Paperback]

""Pythagorean Crimes "is a thriller of the mind. It's the thinking-person's answer to the "Da Vinci Code," This novel gives a glimpse into the intellectually-charged atmosphere of early 20th century Europe. You're drawn into the characters' devotion to their work, and you wish you were sitting at the next table at the cafe, overhearing their conversations. Not content to just explore the personalities behind the intellectual developments of the 19th and 20th centuries, this novel makes the scholars' mathematical work as compelling as any of the characters. Few people associate mathematics and the sciences with the bustling social scene led by Picasso and his colleagues. Tefcros Michaelides breaks the stereotypes about mathematicians and their work as he spins a compelling tale about the greatest minds of 100 years ago and their passions for their work. This novel gives us a glimpse of what it was like to be an eager, young, and up-and-coming scholar during a time where intellectual pursuits were ripe for the picking. "Pythagorean Crimes" shares what it's like to have a single-minded focus on a mathematical problem. This novel transports the reader (even one with no mathematical background) into a world where the pursuit of mathematical truth is an all-consuming force."
--Dr. Amy Szczepanski
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pre-Algebra (2008)"

Set in an era witness to some of the most avant-garde and scintillating scientific discoveries and artistic creations of the last century, this novel takes readers behind the scenes and into the lives of many of history's most fascinating and revolutionary minds, all while posing the question - could a mathematical discovery be so controversial and threatening as to drive one to kill? After the murder of his best friend lands Michael Igerinos in the centre of the investigation as the prime suspect, he is transported back to the turn of the 20th Century, into the heart of Bohemian Paris and the sensual, hedonistic pursuits of the artists who haunted its infamous Moulin Rouge. There they are privy to the tormented genius of Toulouse-Lautrec, the twisted, visceral perspective of a young Picasso, and the wild exploits of les artistes de Montmarte. Michael and Stefanos meet at the groundbreaking Second International Congress of Mathematics in 1900, at which the greatest mathematical minds of the 20th Century - Hilbert, Poincare, Bertrand Russell, Godel - probed the depths of mathematical mystery and challenged the very foundations on which all of mathematical theory is based. Their mutual passion for uncovering the deepest, most elusive secrets of the universe unites them and their search for mathematical discovery draws them down a dark path whose tragic end neither man could possibly foresee.

Tefkros Michaelides has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris IV), and has taught secondary school mathematics since 1981. He has translated 16 books on mathematics, positive sciences and their history from French and English