An Instance of the Fingerpost

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears.

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Trade;(April 10, 2000)
ISBN-10: 1573227951

 

 Amazon.com Review

An Instance of the Fingerpost is that rarest of all possible literary beasts--a mystery powered as much by ideas as by suspects, autopsies, and smoking guns. Hefty, intricately plotted, and intellectually ambitious, Fingerpost has drawn the inevitable comparisons to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and, for once, the comparison is apt.

The year is 1663, and the setting is Oxford, England, during the height of Restoration political intrigue. When Dr. Robert Grove is found dead in his Oxford room, hands clenched and face frozen in a rictus of pain, all the signs point to poison. Rashomon-like, the narrative circles around Grove's murder as four different characters give their version of events: Marco da Cola, a visiting Italian physician--or so he would like the reader to believe; Jack Prestcott, the son of a traitor who fled the country to avoid execution; Dr. John Wallis, a mathematician and cryptographer with a predilection for conspiracy theories; and Anthony Wood, a mild-mannered Oxford antiquarian whose tale proves to be the book's "instance of the fingerpost." (The quote comes from the philosopher Bacon, who, while asserting that all evidence is ultimately fallible, allows for "one instance of a fingerpost that points in one direction only, and allows of no other possibility.")

Like The Name of the Rose, this is one whodunit in which the principal mystery is the nature of truth itself. Along the way, Pears displays a keen eye for period details as diverse as the early days of medicine, the convoluted politics of the English Civil War, and the newfangled fashion for wigs. Yet Pears never loses sight of his characters, who manage to be both utterly authentic denizens of the 17th century and utterly authentic human beings. As a mystery, An Instance of the Fingerpost is entertainment of the most intelligent sort; as a novel of ideas, it proves equally satisfying.

Gads,... I did not expect to pick up this book when I did.. nor... did I expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did... nor.. did I expect to be able to read some 700 pages as quickly as I did!  I guess you could say: this is a good book!

Written much in the style of Wilke Collins, this is a murder mystery which takes place in England in the 1600's, and it told by 4 people who were there at the time, but see the characters and events quite differently.   Which bodes well for the old saying:  Do not believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.

As you read the story by each person you begin to feel like a person on a jury.. who is telling the truth?  ... who do I believe? .. and why do so many people see the same incident in so many ways?

I quite enjoyed this book, and once again I don't remember who's reviews sent me to Amazon to purchase it some time ago.  I think I remember reading more than one review for me to chance such a large book!  But if you like historical mysteries I would say that you would most likely like this book.

I didn't even realize that I have a second book by the same author in my tbr pile, but it is another rather large read.  I think I will choose a book a bit shorter before going into another chunkster as the Fingerpost is.

So if you are not afraid of a book over 700 pages long.. I'd recommend this one and see if you can figure out "who done it" before the end of the book!