"An extraordinary debut novel--dark, fast-paced, thrilling--set in contemporary and nineteenth-century Europe, the United States, and Scotland, involving the true inventor of moving pictures; his lost film, Sǎnce Infernale, made in Edinburgh in 1888; and a shocking series of crimes terrorizing the city in present time. A riveting story of suspense; a compelling tale of adventure. The time: 2002. Alex Whitman, a movie memorabilia dealer who can find anything, is hired by an eccentric film collector to locate what could be the first film ever made, Sǎnce Infernale. Its creator, Augustin Sekuler, is considered by those who know about movies to be the true inventor of motion pictures--not the Lumiere brothers; or Thomas Edison. In 1890, Sekular had boarded a train from Dijon, headed to Paris, days before he was to present to the world his greatest new invention, the first of its kind--a moving picture machine. Sekuler never arrived at Gare de Lyon station. He and his moving picture machine vanished, never to be heard from again. When Alex Whitman tracks down what might be fragments of Sekuler's famously lost film, questions are raised--about Sekuler, about what happened to him and to his invention, and about the film itself. And the stakes become ratcheted up as the film's riddles lead to a darker, far more dangerous mystery"--Provided by publisher.