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. "An Instance of the Fingerpost is a magnificent "tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery story with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page
Friday, December 12, 2008
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears FISU PER
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. "An Instance of the Fingerpost is a magnificent "tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery story with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Spies by Michael Frayne FISU FRA

The sudden trace of a disturbing, forgotten aroma compels Stephen Wheatley to return to the site of a dimly remembered but troubling childhood summer in wartime London. As he pieces together his scattered memories, we are brought back to a quiet, suburban street where two boys--Keith and his sidekick, Stephen--are engaged in their own version of the war effort: spying on the neighbors, recording their movements, and ferreting out their secrets. But when Keith utters six shocking words, the boy’s game of espionage takes a sinister and unintended turn, transforming a wife’s simple errands and the ordinary rituals of family life into the elements of adult catastrophe.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Town House by Trish Cohen / FISU COH
Jack Madigan is, by many accounts, blessed. He can still effortlessly turn a pretty head. And thanks to his legendary rock star father, he lives an enviable existence in a once-glorious, now-crumbling Boston town house with his teenage son, Harlan. But there is one tiny drawback: Jack is an agoraphobic. As long as his dad's admittedly dwindling royalties keep rolling in, Jack's condition isn't a problem. But then the money runs out . . . and all hell breaks loose.
Labels:
agoraphobia,
father-son relations
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Club Dumas / FISU PER
Lucas Corso is a book detective, a mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found hanged, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring. Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris in pursuit of a sinister and seemingly omniscient killer. (from the cover)
Call # FISU PER
REVIEWS
Call # FISU PER
REVIEWS
Labels:
Fiction,
International,
Mystery
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