Showing posts with label Iain Pears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iain Pears. Show all posts

Friday, May 11, 2007

185. An Instance of the Fingerpost (Iain Pears)

Oxford skyline

Synopsis from Amazon:
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.

My rating: 3 stars