Hated Rebecca Stott's novel "Ghostwalk," but I drudged through because my sister passed it along to me and she tends to have great taste. But in this case, maybe she was just trying to recycle.

Like Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," "Ghostwalk" has a background story that is factually/historically rooted - here it is Isaac Newton's alchemical research and its consequences - that is mixed in with a modern-day murder mystery.

The mystery has to do with animal testing in England and Europe and suggests that there is an animal-rights group that goes around killing humans to make its point that animals are sacred. After the original researcher mysteriously dies, a woman is hired to finish a book based on Newton's work.

She gets mixed up with the militant animal rights group and goes a bit bonkers when the 17th century surfaces in her current time/place. A contemporary of Newton's - a ghost, hence the name of the book - haunts her and her friends and tries to kill her! I just didn't buy it.

Overall, I thought it was preposterous, tedious, and icky. But if anyone wants to give it a go, I have a copy for you.