JaneConsumer
09-15-2008, 09:29 PM
This novel fell outside my radar when it was published in 1998. It may have taken me 10 years to get to it, but I'm glad I did.
We are in Oxford in the 1660s - a time, and place, of great intellectual, scientific, religious and political ferment. Robert Grove, a fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear about the events surrounding his death from four witnesses: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologican and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each witness tells their version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.
Extraordinary may be an understatement. If you like a mystery that challenges your intellect, I highly recommend An Instance of the Fingerpost.
My review appears here (http://fuzzyhistory.com/2008/09/15/an-instance-of-the-fingerpost-by-iain-pears/).
We are in Oxford in the 1660s - a time, and place, of great intellectual, scientific, religious and political ferment. Robert Grove, a fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear about the events surrounding his death from four witnesses: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologican and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each witness tells their version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.
Extraordinary may be an understatement. If you like a mystery that challenges your intellect, I highly recommend An Instance of the Fingerpost.
My review appears here (http://fuzzyhistory.com/2008/09/15/an-instance-of-the-fingerpost-by-iain-pears/).