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An Instance of the Fingerpost

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 10,224 ratings · 642 reviews

A national bestseller and one of theNew York Public Library's Books to Remember, An Instance of the Fingerpost is a thrilling historical mystery from Iain Pears.

"It is 1663, and England is wracked with intrigue and civil strife. When an Oxford don is murdered, it seems at first that the incident can have nothing to do with great matters of church and state....Yet, little...more

Paperback, 704 pages

Published April 1st 2000 by Riverhead Trade (first published 1997)

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Jul 30, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

What sticks in my mind about this book is being consumed with fury for 1/4th of it--and then having the following conclusion be the greatest revenge. A really excellent novel with some very unreliable narrators and detailed characterization. I was amazed at how everything fit together by the end.

20 likes · like · see review

Aug 21, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone with a brain

Still one of the best books I've ever read, this has something for everyone. It's a mystery, it's history, it's science, it's drama, it's amazing. It's really long too, but that just makes it better- by the time you finish it you'll be sorry it wasn't longer.

17 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2007 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: historical fiction and mystery lovers

Shelves: fiction

A story told in four sections, each told in the first person by a different character, and set in England during the Reformation, this is a gripping tale and intriguing mystery. What you think the story is about after reading the first section mutates and evolves to a quite surprising ending. If you like mystery, beautiful prose, and fascinating characters, pick this up. You won't easily be able to put it down.

12 likes · like · see review

May 15, 2008 Leif rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: folks who haven't gotten into historical fiction yet

Shelves: mystery

This mystery, set in England around 1660, is described four times -- once each from the perspectives of four characters, some based on real personalities and others fictitious. The biases, motives, and flaws of the narrators are compelling, to be sure, but what really makes this book click is Pears' thorough understanding of the time, place, and cultural flow in which the story reveals itself.

The measured revelation -- and eventual closure -- of what ends up being a complex event, initially disg...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2007 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of intellectual thrillers

Shelves: own, mystery

An Instance of the Fingerpost had been on my radar for quite some time before I actually picked it up. It's a critically acclaimed murder mystery that takes place in England right after Cromwell's death and the king's return to the throne (as is the current book I'm reading - I'm not too sure how that happened!). The book is divided into four parts, each part narrated by a different character. The premise is that different people can all see one event and take completely different things from it...more An Instance of the Fingerpost had been on my radar for quite some time before I actually picked it up. It's a critically acclaimed murder mystery that takes place in England right after Cromwell's death and the king's return to the throne (as is the current book I'm reading - I'm not too sure how that happened!). The book is divided into four parts, each part narrated by a different character. The premise is that different people can all see one event and take completely different things from it. Although each narrator covers the exact same event (the murder of Jeremy Grove and subsequent arrest and execution of Sarah Blundy), their perceptions are radically different enough that you never feel like you're reading the same story over and over.

I was worried that this was going to be yet another one of those "It's up to you to decide what the truth is" deals (see: Sarah Dunant's Mapping the Edge), but the fourth narrator gives a sense of finality to the entire book. It's also possible to suss out some of what is and isn't true when considering A) inconsistencies in the four stories, B) information that one narrator has that the others don't, and C) the biases and personality of each narrator. One narrator has the tendency to react rashly and foolishly; another is prone to obsession. Most often, books are written so that the narrator's prose is meant to be taken as a reliable truth; this is definitely not the case here.

I read Fingerpost in two sittings, with about a month passing between. If I had to do it all over, I wouldn't let that large amount of time go by before finishing it; the book is far more interesting when all the details are fresh in your mind and you can make the tiny connections between each narrator's story. I also think the book is more rewarding upon finishing it and reflecting on it as a whole; I felt only moderately warm about it until I reached the end of the final narration, at which point I felt considerably awestruck (Sarah Waters' Affinity had the same effect, although I felt only less-than-lukewarm about the novel up until the end). One of the bigger surprises for me would probably not surprise a history buff very much, but it's still presented in a neat way that should interest someone who saw it coming.

I enjoyed Fingerpost far more than my first Iain Pears novel, A Dream of Scipio (which also bills itself as a murder mystery on its back cover, but is most definitely not). It's given me enough faith in him to check out his others books, which are in a series of "art history mysteries." Pears is an art historian himself, and I'm looking forward to reading something he has considerable knowledge about.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 05, 2007 Luke Goldstein rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Victorian fans

I found this book a tad slow in the beginning, but as you move along you'll find that the world created within is incredible in its detail. The main shock came somewhere around page 180 (this isn't a spoiler, don't worry) when the story being told came to an end. I wondered if 420 pages of epilogue was a little overdone, but i found that the book is actually broken into four parts with four different characters telling their versions of the same series of events. The pieces slowly come together...more

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Jul 15, 2007 Slayde rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Historical fiction fanatics

Shelves: summer2007

An interesting concept, meticulously executed...but it didn't work well for me. The book is split between four narrators, each describing essentially the same set of events from his own perspective. The storyline is relatively interesting, particularly towards the end. But I didn't find any of the four narrators to be particularly compelling and the story ended up feeling slow and disjointed. Also, perhaps due to the book's structure, the revelation felt anticlimactic when it finally arrived. Fi...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2007 Lara rated it 3 of 5 stars

The conceit of this book -- 4 different narrators each telling his version of the same set of events -- was novel and well-executed, and the rendering of Restoration England was obviously well-researched. However, the story dragged at times as a result of the detailed explorations of 17th-century politics and mannerisms. I would recommend this only to a those with a serious interest in historical fiction.

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2009 Tim Youker rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dabblers in English history and early modern lit.

Imagine a cross between "Rashomon" and the Diary of Samuel Pepys, with a dash of Umberto Eco, and you'll have some idea of what this book is like. It's by no means perfect (the identity of the killer is actually revealed with over a hundred pages left to go), but it's still an engrossing read, and a fine use the unreliable narrator device.

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2009 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Wendy by: Wanda!

Shelves: 2009-reads

I enjoyed the idea of this book - a "murder mystery" told from the viewpoint of 4 different characters. I wanted to give this book 3.5 stars though. I sort of got lost in all the historical background...at times not knowing who was on whose side! I guess I'm just not that familiar with the political and religious background of this time and it tripped me up a lot while reading this book.

If all the men were like the characters in this book, then I'm glad I didn't live in that time period! The 2 q...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Jared rated it 1 of 5 stars

Uses multiple narrators to tell the story, each one revealing a bit more of the truth, which is intriguing. The only problem is the book is tedious and the payoff is not worth the ride.

6 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2009 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2009-reads, favourites

I loved, loved, loved this book.

5 likes · like · see review

May 16, 2013 Mindy McAdams rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is not in the same league as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which are set in an earlier time in England, but which I have read recently and enjoyed immensely. The difference is that here, in this novel, the characters are nowhere near as complex and richly layered.

This story has four parts, each told in the first person by a different narrator. Each tells about roughly the same events in the same place (Oxford, 1663, and a little bit of London), but the narratives a...more This book is not in the same league as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which are set in an earlier time in England, but which I have read recently and enjoyed immensely. The difference is that here, in this novel, the characters are nowhere near as complex and richly layered.

This story has four parts, each told in the first person by a different narrator. Each tells about roughly the same events in the same place (Oxford, 1663, and a little bit of London), but the narratives are not redundant. Each story adds more information to the one that preceded it, and the story (revolving around a murder) is intricately constructed. It's clever, it's full of real people from that time and has a fair amount of historical color (I'm amused that people drank ale at breakfast). But it failed to fascinate me, and I found it becoming tedious during the third section.

The problem for me was that I liked the first narrator and found his account often amusing -- he's an Italian who often finds the behavior of the English quite strange; he dislikes their food and their (Shakespearean) theater -- but the subsequent narrators are not at all likeable. The second one, in particular, is very unpleasant in myriad ways.

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson is set partly in the same time, also in England, and we meet some of the same (real) characters in that trilogy. The mathematician John Wallis, for example, is one of our four narrators in Fingerpost. Having a minor role in The Baroque Cycle, Wallis is nonetheless likeable there, as a mentor of our hero Daniel Waterhouse -- while in Fingerpost Wallis is largely despicable. I was often reminded of Stephenson's massive trilogy while reading Fingerpost because of the references to the Royal Society and some descriptions (mostly in the first section of Fingerpost) of the medical experiments conducted by its members. Those memories also affected my experience of Fingerpost because Stephenson's books were so much more fun to read.(less)

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Aug 19, 2011 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: united-kingdom, smart-pulp, mystery, historical-fiction

Pears offers an historical fiction set in 1663, primarily in the university town, Oxford. For the last few decades, the residents of Oxford (as well as many of the subjects throughout England) are wrestling over questions of religion, politics, and science. Yes, there is a murder to be solved, but there are multiple mysteries within the novel: What is each character's true politics? (Royalist or Cromwell sympathizer?) What is each character's true religious affiliation (Anglican, Catholic, Anaba...more Pears offers an historical fiction set in 1663, primarily in the university town, Oxford. For the last few decades, the residents of Oxford (as well as many of the subjects throughout England) are wrestling over questions of religion, politics, and science. Yes, there is a murder to be solved, but there are multiple mysteries within the novel: What is each character's true politics? (Royalist or Cromwell sympathizer?) What is each character's true religious affiliation (Anglican, Catholic, Anabaptist, Quaker, the occult or other?) Where are their primary affections? (To God, country, land deeds, a trade/vocation, a lover, or to simply saving one's hide?)

Pears creates a novel that employs four different narrators. They are so different in perspective--and even at time different in fact--that they are almost four distinct novels. Each narrator personifies elements from Sir Francis Bacon's writings on epistemology, or how we know what we know.

The first narrator focuses on the quest for truth through the appropriate method: induction or deduction? As a philosopher and physician-in-training, his major obsession is the quest for scientific truth. He rubs shoulders with Boyle, Wren, Locke and some lesser-known scientists and intellectuals as he explores the developing scientific method as a replacement for the a priori truths of classical philosophy.

The second narrator focuses on the quest for truth through evidence of trustworthiness or betrayal, the latter requiring revenge. Even though he is a student of law, his narrative demonstrates great emotion and the influence of both angels and demons.

The third narrator, a cryptographer, focuses on the quest for truth through prejudice based on nationality, gender, class and vocation. He and the second narrator start with their conclusions and subsequently gather their evidence.

The fourth narrator uses a variety of methods for pursuing truths, but I'll leave you to discover his methods and biases since he has the priviledge of going last and revealing many hidden truths--or presenting another version of the truth in contrast or in addition to the three narratives that precede his.

Even though this novel is about a specific time and place, it examines age-old questions about epistemology: How can people rid themselves of personal bias? And should they exclude emotions such as love, compassion or even security when they adjudicate narratives or even merely report stand-alone facts (if that's possible) as evidence? How do people handle perspectivity since no one is omniscient? nor is anyone omnipresent? How can we avoid the sad fact that the victors usually write, disseminate, promote and preserve history?

Pears does a fabulous job asking these questions about truth-making, and he picks an appropriate historical setting for such questions. I learned a great deal. For example, I do not have the stomach for politics: too much shifting ground. But I applaud Pears for keeping me engaged, for keeping me learning not just about history but about epistemology, and for keeping me guessing for the duration of 600+ pages. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 12, 2008 Danger Kallisti added it Recommends it for: desperate historical fiction fans

Shelves: crap-just-crap

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 06, 2009 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think Iain Pears may be my favorite author right now. I've read all his books. Apparently he's written many magazine articles as well. This is his most formitable undertaking. It's a bit of work, but I found it worthwhile.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 15, 2008 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to see how good fiction can be.

This is still the gold standard of all historical fiction for me. I've tried to find its equal and haven't come up with it. The four contemporary accountings of the same events, the disagreement between the various witnesses, the lofty intellectual language, the extensive historical accuracy of the period and location... this is just what great historical fiction is supposed to be. I've read several of this author's other works now and they're all good, but this is simply that much better. Fasci...more

5 likes · like · see review

Dec 11, 2008 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who loves reading, especially historical fiction

Recommended to Mike by: Dr. Marti Head

Shelves: historical_fiction

This is one of the most well-crafted, meticulously written, daring, busy, fun, and intriguing books I've ever read. It combines shifting points of view, murder, early experiments with blood transfusion, international intrigue, hidden identities, the Restoration and Catholic/Protestant politics, and insanity into a rollicking, erudite, challenging, and delightful read. You'll be amazed at the audacity of the author as he begins his high-wire act, and you'll be even more amazed and gratified when...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Sean rated it 3 of 5 stars

A literary thriller in the vein of the In the Name of the Rose, but not as good. Still, well worth the time if you’re into well written mysteries and the English Reformation. Sure helped pass the time on my flight to Egypt.

Next up, by the way is Mafouz’s Cairo Trilogy. I started it last night, and am already a hundred pages in. It is really, really good, and I feel so lucky that I am getting to read it here. The goal is to finish the trilogy before I leave (it clocks in around 12,000 pages) incl...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 28, 2008 Sarita rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sarita by: risi

There is so much in this book that I'll have to re-read it, I feel I missed the depth of it. Also, being a foreigner, the main characters were unknown to me and the description of England in the 17th century is fantastic.

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 16, 2008 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anglophiles, historical fiction fans

I would recommend this book in a second, however, the reader really needs to be invested. It is a complicated plot that requires quite a bit of attention -I found myself getting confused about half way through, but perhaps that's what the author wants you to feel!
In essance, the story is 4 parts: each part with one narrator retelling their experiences leading up to the night of a crime and their oppinions of who-did-it, which will give you doubt about each story you read. A GREAT structure for t...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

An excellent piece of historical fiction set just after the British Restoration, and around the time of the founding of the Royal Society.

This mystery is told from multiple perspectives. Pears does a fascinating job of telling a story with characters who tell skewed stories and half-truths, and rarely garner much sympathy from the reader.

It's loaded with philosophy (highlighting the Empiricism/Rationalism/Late Thomism debates), and also focuses on the changes occurring in the sciences. The disc...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Kirsty Darbyshire added it · review of another edition

The opinions I've come across on this book are divided pretty evenly between 'couldn't read it' and 'absolutely loved it' - no one seems to end up on the middle ground. I thought the lack of averageness was as good a reason to read it as any, and besides, it sounded fascinatingly different from the mysteries I generally devour.

The story is divided into four separate narratives; each detailing some of the same events from another point of view, each adding to and changing the reader's idea of wh

...more

The story is divided into four separate narratives; each detailing some of the same events from another point of view, each adding to and changing the reader's idea of what has happened. The scene is mostly Oxford in 1663, after the English Civil War and before the Bubonic Plague and the Great Fire of London enter the history books. Many of the characters are real people, some of them I recognised, many of them I didn't know, there's a note at the end that points out the real from the fictional.

I wasn't totally compelled by the book, there were certainly parts of the second and third stories where I could have left the book for a while, but I couldn't put it down for too long. Darren assured me that Pears knew how to end a book and this added to my feeling that this was a book worth the effort of reading. At close on seven hundred pages, all written somewhat in seventeenth century style, it's quite a weighty read. The narratives that begin and end the story are easier reads than the two in between though and towards the end when all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into their places it's quite magical.

So I'm definitely camped out with the people who think this is an excellent book. One of the things that worried me when I was reading was that some of the small details would turn out to be essential to the plot and that my enjoyment would be marred by forgetting something that seemed minor, that while the four narratives built on top of each other I'd miss a difference between them that would ruin the book for me in the end. To future readers I'd just like to say that that won't be the case. Like any whodunnit the clues are clear enough when the author wants to make them seen, sit back and enjoy the story and let the author do his work.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 15, 2008 emily rated it 1 of 5 stars

well, I guess it's sort of read.

I mean, I read as damn much as I could. which was roughly 1/3. it was going nowhere, and honestly, I didn't find it compelling enough to move much further. there's a sort of mystery I couldn't really get into, and there's regular (and, at the end of the book, carefully cited) appearances by british scientists and philosophers of the period, but there was nothing that actually made me want to pay attention. I didn't care about the characters or their progress.

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Dec 31, 2012 Marleen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“When in a Search of any Nature the Understanding stands suspended, then Instances of the Fingerpost show the true and inviolable Way in which the Question is to be decided. These Instances afford great Light, so that the Course of the Investigation will sometimes be terminated by them. Sometimes, indeed these Instances are found amongst that Evidence already set down.” – Francis Bacon.

I almost always write my own summaries of the books I read. I’ve decided to make an exception for this book tho...more “When in a Search of any Nature the Understanding stands suspended, then Instances of the Fingerpost show the true and inviolable Way in which the Question is to be decided. These Instances afford great Light, so that the Course of the Investigation will sometimes be terminated by them. Sometimes, indeed these Instances are found amongst that Evidence already set down.” – Francis Bacon.

I almost always write my own summaries of the books I read. I’ve decided to make an exception for this book though; I just don’t think I can do the contents of this book justice without giving away too much of the plot. So here’s a copy of the blurb as it appears on the inside sleeve of the copy I read:

“We are in Oxford in the 1660’s, 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 events surrounding his death from four witnesses: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood-transfusion; Jack Prestcott, 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, theologian and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each witness tells their version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.”

In November, when I finished “The Prince” by Tiffany Reisz I tweeted about my frustration about the monumental cliff-hanger the book ended on. I was delighted as well as surprised to have her reply to my tweet and admit that she is the queen of the “mind-fuck”. Although I won’t know the exact extend to which she fucked with her readers’ minds in that book and its two prequels until I read The Mistress, the fourth and final title in this part of her “Original Sinners” series, I am inclined to take her word for it. When asked, she recommended “An Instance of the Fingerpost” as one of the ultimate “mind-fuck” books she had ever read. This comment, of course, meant that curiosity got the better of me and I requested the book from my library. All I can say now that I have finished the book is WOW! This is indeed a book in which the reader is taken for a ride, given one impression only to have it demolished in a later part of the book. This book is a work of genius. The reader is presented with a mystery and subsequently given four different accounts of the events that lead up to and followed it. The four parts are told by four different narrators all of whom play a pivotal role in the proceedings. The four men sharing their stories all share from their own perspective and with their own interests colouring what they do and don’t share. And all four men come up with different answers and conclusions. Since only one of our narrators actually has all available information, only one of them shares the full story of what exactly has happened and why, and the reader is held in suspense until the very last page of the book.

What makes this book so incredibly clever is that the author plays a completely fair game with the reader. He doesn’t cheat and confront the reader with a lot of new, yet essential, information in the last few pages of the book. Most of the clues as to what is happening can be found in the first three accounts. I would defy anybody though to only read those parts and try to come up with all the right answers for I don’t think it is possible. This book plays with the reader at every turn and does this in such a way that the book gets ever more intriguing with each subsequent page; that which appears straight-forward turns out to be anything but.

As a mystery this book is intriguing, well plotted and completely engrossing. As a work of historical fiction it is fascinating as well as plausible, not in the least because most of the characters encountered in the book did really live at the time the story takes place.
Of course the second half of the 17th century is a fascinating time to read about even without the mystery this book provides. England is a country trying to find a balance that will prevent it from descending into civil war once again and modern science is starting to emerge in a time when every new discovery still had to be attributed to the greater glory of God and superstition was still rife. It makes for a wonderful mix of progress and repression and it was with wonder and an occasional smile that I read about obviously very clever people with ideas and discoveries that were nothing sort of genius fall back on their faith to explain what they had produced through their own intelligence.

I could go on raving about this well written, well plotted and well executed book, but I will stop myself. I just want to say two more things:

- Read this book if you haven’t already done so! And,
- Thank you Miss Reisz for pointing me in the direction of this fabulous book!
(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-crime, historical, religious

One of the greatest historical mysteries ever written. Four Narrators, each with their own dark secrets and each with their own agenda, remember a strange murder, and an even stranger murder trial , which shook the Oxford of the Mid sixteen sixties. An Unlikeable Oxford Don dies, an apparent victim of poisoning. His apparent murderer. A strange young peasant woman, of strangely advanced ideas, named Sarah Blundy. The Four narrator are1. An Stuffy, snobbish, but fairly intelligent Italian Mercha...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Smcleish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in May 1999.

Iain Pears' current best seller is something of a tour-de-force of historical detective novel writing. It is the story of the visit made by a Venetian, Marco de Cola, to Oxford during the 1660s - the early years of the Restoration of the monarchy after the rule of Cromwell. Politically, these were days of shifting loyalties (due in large part among the upper classes to Charles II's somewhat inconsistent rewarding of services made to him and punish...more Originally published on my blog here in May 1999.

Iain Pears' current best seller is something of a tour-de-force of historical detective novel writing. It is the story of the visit made by a Venetian, Marco de Cola, to Oxford during the 1660s - the early years of the Restoration of the monarchy after the rule of Cromwell. Politically, these were days of shifting loyalties (due in large part among the upper classes to Charles II's somewhat inconsistent rewarding of services made to him and punishment of attacks against him during his years of exile). It is also an exciting time for science in England, seeing the formation of the Royal Society and the emergence of modern scientific methods. Specific aspects that make themselves apparent in An Instance of the Fingerpost include: more and more pre-eminence accorded to experiment; almost daily advances in medicine as dissection of human bodies becomes more acceptable; the feeling that ideas and knowledge should be made public.

During Cola's stay in Oxford, one of the fellows of New College dies in somewhat suspicious circumstances; using some of the new scientific techniques, it is discovered that he drank wine poisoned with arsenic. Suspicion falls on a young woman, a former servant dismissed by this man; she is in the end hanged on her own confession.

An Instance of the Fingerpost (the title is a quotation from Francis Bacon's Novum Organum Scientarum about the feature of a puzzle which points the way to a true explanation of it, which in the original context is to do with the foundations of modern science which so concern this book) consists of four accounts of these events from the points of view of different men. Each writer has his own concerns and obsessions, their own reasons for recording or suppressing (or forgetting or misunderstanding) parts of what happened, and Pears manages the literary feat of making each seem to come from the pen of a different personality.

As with any historical novel, the main ingredient by which the reader judges An Instance of the Fingerpost is the evocation of the period in which it is set. It has a very strong seventeenth century atmosphere; the accounts may be in modern English, but they are full of ideas and modes of thought which are typical of the period, akin to the writings of the early scientists who are the major characters of the book. A word of warning, though: descriptions of seventeenth century medical practice and experimentation are not for the squeamish reader.

The novel of which An Instance of the Fingerpost most reminded me is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. There are several reasons for this, including similarities in genre (both being at the literary end of the historical detective novel market) and setting (among those involved in the philosophical developments which led to modern science - and among celibate communities, Oxbridge college fellows being forbidden to marry until well into the nineteenth century). It is the quality of the writing within the genre, though, which is perhaps the most important link.(less)

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Aug 02, 2011 Vikram added it

An Instance of the Fingerpost, at one level, is a murder mystery set in Restoration England, specifically in the academic environs of Oxford. The plot nominally is about the murder of Dr. Groves, a Fellow at Oxford University who is found poisoned in his room. The book is told through the eyes of four narrators, an Italian visitor to Oxford, the son of a traitor determined to clear his father's name, a famous mathematician and code-breaker, and a somewhat mousy and solitary historian. All of the...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Steve Auerweck rated it 5 of 5 stars

I doubt I would have chosen this book had I not been so impressed by Iain Pears' more recent novel, "Stone's Fall." A murder mystery in the 1600s? And told from four different viewpoints, no less? Kind of daunting. But it turned out to be totally engrossing and suspenseful. Pears' genius and erudition shines out from this novel like a Klieg light. One thing that's astounding is that the majority of the characters are real 17th-century figures, portrayed fairly accurately based on my frequent vis...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Jocelyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book about eight years ago and absolutely loved it. So, when I was going on an overseas trip and needed to bring one paperback that I was sure I would enjoy, I bought this at a used bookstore and took it along. I still think it's amazing, although I didn't like it as well the second time around. I'm guessing this is because most of the amazing-ness is due to the many plot twists. The second time around, those plot twists just don't seem quite as twisty.

It's a kind of historical myste...more

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About Iain Pears

Iain Pears is an English art historian, novelist and journalist. He was educated at Warwick School, Warwick, Wadham College and Wolfson College, Oxford. Before writing, he worked as a reporter for the BBC, Channel 4 (UK) and ZDF (Germany) and correspondent for Reuters from 1982 to 1990 in Italy, France, UK and US. In 1987 he became a Getty Fellow in the Arts and Humanities at Yale University. His...more

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Books by Iain Pears

The Raphael Affair (Jonathan Argyll, #1)

The Titian Committee (Jonathan Argyll, #2)

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“The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind."
(Marco)” — 5 people liked it

“He who profits by villainy, has perpetrated it.” — 4 people liked it

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An Instance of the Fingerpost

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