The Inquisitor

Catherine Jinks

An inquisitor in southern France in the early 14th century, Dominican Father Bernard Peyre's job is rooting out remnant Cathars. Shrewd and empathic, he is an effective inquisitor, but when his superior starts looking through old depositions for evidence of corruption and is brutally murdered, he has to become a detective as well. The Inquisitor starts off as a kind of "inquisition procedural", introducing us to the personnel and workings of the Holy Office and the other powers in the town, the Bishop, the Seneschal, and the Prior. But authorities can't always be trusted, approved procedures are not always followed, and the replacement chief inquisitor is more interested in demonic magic than in heresy — and has a personal grudge against Bernard. Even worse, Bernard has fallen in love, endangering his vows and clouding his judgement, and his situation rapidly becomes untenable.
The Inquisitor purports to be written by Bernard, though of course no one in the 14th century could have written something that works as a modern novel. Clever sleight of hand by Jinks stops us noticing the contrivance, however, and the result works both as a thriller and a historical novel. The background exposition necessary for a reader without knowledge of the period is unobtrusively slipped in and the language and characterisations capture something of "the spirit of the times" without making the novel indigestible. Bernard in particular is a fine psychological study: he may occasionally seem anachronistic in his sensibilities, but he is not just a modern dressed up in historical costume. -- A book review by Danny Yee © 2002 http://dannyreviews.com/
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Pompeii

Robert Harris

All along the coast, the Roman Empire’s richest citizens are relaxing their luxurious villas. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Only one man is worried. The engineer Marius Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct which brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line – somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius – decent, practical, incorruptible – promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. But as he heads out towards Vesuvius he is about to discover there are forces which even the worls; only superpower cannot control. – book cover
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The Fencing Master

by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

On the eve of Spain's september Revolution of 1868, while the regal Isabella consorts with her household cavalry and rumours and plots abound, Jaime Astarloa, master of the ancient art of fencing, conducts his life above such vulgarities. He prefers to concentrate on his modest but dignified and orderly existence as fencing teacher to the noblemen of Madrid and their sons. However Don Jaime finds his attnetion diverted by young Adela de Otero, who persuades him to take her on a a pupil. After one bout that leaves no question of her talent and skill, the master falls in love with his pupil. Erotic passion and political intrigue threaten to distract him from his quest for the perfect sword thrust, a survivor of a more gallant age, he does not fully comprehend. But if Don Jaime proves naive, her is no less resolute. It takes time for him to understand, but when he does, will he have the strength left for a duel which can only be to the death? - book cover.
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