The Ancient Nine by Ian Smith Book Review

The Ancient Nine by Ian Smith Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date September 18, 2018

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fall 1988

Spenser Collins
An unlikely Harvard prospect, smart and athletic, strapped for cash, determined to succeed. Calls his mother—who raised him on her own in Chicago—every week.

Dalton Winthrop
A white-shoe legacy at Harvard, he’s just the most recent in a string of moneyed, privileged Winthrop men in Cambridge. He’s got the ease—and the deep knowledge—that come from belonging.

These two find enough common ground to become friends, cementing their bond when Spenser is “punched” to join the Delphic Club, one of the most exclusive of Harvard’s famous all-male final clubs. Founded in the nineteenth century, the Delphic has had titans of industry, Hollywood legends, heads of state, and power brokers among its members.

Dalton Winthrop knows firsthand that the Delphic doesn’t offer memberships to just anyone. His great-uncle is one of their oldest living members, and Dalton grew up on stories of the club’s rituals. But why is his uncle so cryptic about the Ancient Nine, a shadowy group of alums whose identities are unknown and whose power is absolute? They protect the Delphic’s darkest and oldest secrets—including what happened to a student who sneaked into the club’s stately brick mansion in 1927 and was never seen again.

Dalton steers Spenser into deeper and deeper recesses of the club, and beyond, to try to make sense of what they think they may be seeing. But with each scrap of information they get from an octogenarian Crimson graduate, a crumbling newspaper in the library’s archives, or one of Harvard’s most famous and heavily guarded historical books, a fresh complication trips them up. The more the friends investigate, the more questions they unearth, tangling the story of the club, the disappearance, and the Ancient Nine, until they realize their own lives are in danger.

The Ancient Nine by Ian Smith Book Review

A murder mystery at Harvard involving a secret society with lots of twist & turns. Sounds like that movie with Paul Walker, The Skulls, right? On the surface, sure. But, The Ancient Nine is more than that!

Punched Into Society

We meet Spenser & he is the underdog of the story. Who doesn’t love an underdog? Despite many struggles, he enters the elite world of Harvard. Quickly, he’s invited to enter this super exclusive & long revered secret society. From there, it’s one twist after another. I’m serious. Ancient Nine goes deep with the layers of secrets, past coming back to explain current events & lots of money thrown around.

Bring On the Drama

Some people have it so easy. Reading Ancient Nine, you hear tales of paths carved with a gold carpet laid out for many. I can’t even wrap my head around it. Honestly, it’s fascinating. Their world filled with decadence & deep-seeded secrets is fodder for a drama lover like myself. I can’t get enough.

Dr. Ian Smith

Ancient Nine has a really great pace with lots of steady action. Despite all the turns & many layers to the story, it’s easy to follow. Blindly, I read the book & love it. Only when I’m writing this review did I realize the author is Dr. Ian! Whaaaaaat? Sarah & I know him from Celebrity Fit Club on VH1. He always seems cool on the TV & I’m a fan. First, he always dresses nicely, is a straight shooter & seems like a genuinely nice guy. So, I think it’s really cool he wrote this bad-ass book.

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into This book! This is a fun & twisty thriller. If you’re down to read all about secrets & the drama surrounding the rich & elite in the hidden world of secret societies, The Ancient Nine is for you!

Special thanks to Ian Smith, St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: IAN SMITH

Dr. Ian Smith is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling books, SHRED: THE REVOLUTIONARY DIET, and SUPER SHRED: The Big Results Diet, and BLAST THE SUGAR OUT. Dr. Smith’s highly anticipated newest book, The Clean 20, became an instant New York Times best seller, helping hundreds of thousands of people reduce bad sugars from their diet, lose weight, lower blood sugar levels, and cut the cravings.

Dr. Smith was appointed by President Obama to a second term on the prestigious President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. He is currently the medical contributor and co-host of the nationally syndicated television show The Rachael Ray Show.

He is a former co-host of the Emmy award winning syndicated daytime talk show, The Doctors.  He also served as the medical/diet expert for six seasons on VH1’s highly-rated Celebrity Fit Club, and is the creator and founder of the national health initiatives The 50 Million Pound Challenge and The Makeover Mile.  Dr. Smith is the former medical correspondent for NBC News network and for NewsChannel 4 in New York, where he filed reports for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show as well as WNBC’s various news broadcasts.  He has appeared extensively on various broadcasts including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey Show, The Talk, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, MSNBC and many more. He has written for various publications including Time, Newsweek, Men’s Fitness, and the New York Daily News, and has been featured in several other publications including, People, Redbook, Details Magazine, Essence, Ebony, University of Chicago Medicine on the Midway, Cosmopolitan, and Black Enterprise.

A highly-sought after speaker, Dr. Smith’s work has been honored by several organizations, including the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for his coverage on the momentous events beginning on Sept. 11, 2001.  He is also very active in charitable causes.  Dr. Smith has also served on the boards of the American Council on Exercise, the New York Mission Society, the Prevent Cancer Foundation, The New York Council for the Humanities, and The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity.

Dr. Smith graduated from Harvard College with an AB and received a master’s in science education from Teachers College of Columbia University. He attended Dartmouth Medical School and completed the last two years of his medical education and graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.