An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

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. I read this book many years ago and it sent me in search of everything Pears wrote before and after.

With rights sold for record-breaking sums around the world, An Instance of the Fingerpost is destined to become a major international publishing event. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth. Each tells his own version of what happened. 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. 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. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances.

Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A national bestseller and one of the New York Public Librarys Books to Remember, An Instance of the Fingerpost is a thrilling historical mystery from Iain. Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Cromwell's short-lived republic. 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.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears