An Instance of the Fingerpost
Iain Pears
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
3.92
· 26 ratings · 750 pages · Published: 28 Mar 1997
We are in England in the 1660s. Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear the story of the death from four witnesses: an Italian physician intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of an alleged Royalist traitor; a master cryptographer who has worked for both Cromwell and the king; and a renowned Oxford antiquarian. Each tells his own version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.
With rights sold for record-breaking sums around the world, An Instance of the Fingerpost is destined to become a major international publishing event. Deserving of comparison to the works of John Fowles and Umberto Eco, Iain Pears's novel is an ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.
Tagged as:
- thriller 4
- historical 3
- historical fiction 3
- mystery 3
- crime 3
- early modern era 3
- literary fiction 3
- suspense 3
- dark academia 3
- unreliable narrator 3
- law enforcement 3
- classics 2
- 20th century 2
- religion 2
- medieval 2
- espionage 2
- drama 2
- epistolary 1
- action / adventure 1
- gothic 1
- whodunit 1
- spirituality 1
- political intrigue 1
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- format - reader age
- audiobook 2
- book 1
- adult fiction 1
- content warnings
- murder 2
- death / grief 1