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Charles Du Luc #3
A Plague of Lies
In her historic mysteries The Rhetoric of Death and The Eloquence of Blood, Judith Rock created an atmosphere that "takes you back to fascinating and dangerous seventeenth-century Paris so well that I suspect her of being a time-traveler who's been there" (Ariana Franklin, national bestselling author of A Murderous Procession). Now, the latest novel to feature Charles du Luc finds the ex-soldier-turned-Jesuit caught up in royal intrigue...Versailles, 1687 Madame de Maintenon is King Louis XIV’s second wife. The daughter of a minor noble of ill-repute, she has not forgiven the king's Jesuit confessor for encouraging him to withhold the title of Queen from her. To placate her, the prestigious Louis le Grand Jesuit school has sent a delegation—including her distant cousin Pere Jouvancy and rhetoric teacher Charles du Luc—to Versailles with a gift of reliquary. But while the Sun King’s palace might be spectacular, this visit is anything but pleasant. Their first night, a courtier dies, and court whispers claim poison. Then the Jesuit delegation falls direly ill, and a palace gardener is found murdered. Fear grips a court already on edge. In the midst of all this, Charles learns that one of his students is in love with the king’s rebellious (and betrothed) daughter, and may ruin not only himself, but all of them …
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 2, 2012
9 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Judith Rock
10 books30 followersJudith Rock has written on dance, art, and theology for many journals, and has been artist-in-residence and taught and lectured at colleges, seminaries, and conferences across the United States and abroad. After years in New York, she and her husband currently split their time between Louisville, Kentucky, and Sarasota, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 14, 2020
I reviewed the first book in the Charles Du Luc series, Rhetoric of Death, on Goodreads in 2016. At the time I said that it had awakened in me an interest in French history, the Jesuits, and classical knowledge. I liked it well enough that I know I read her second, Eloquence of Blood, although it doesn’t look like I reviewed it in Goodreads or noted it in my book list. I do remember that I liked it as well. However, after reading this book, which is the third in the series, my interest in 17th century France and in Charles Du Luc is completely sated. One might say that I am feeling overstuffed.
It took me a long time to read this, months actually. I purchased it last year intending to read it before I went to Versailles in October as the action—I use the word action somewhat loosely as this book is very slow paced—takes place there. I didn’t, however, start reading it until after I returned at the beginning of November. As it is now mid May you may get an idea of how enthralling I found it.
Reading this book was like ploughing through a History book written by a scholarly historian for a course on Louis XIV. Some of it is interesting but some of it, not so much. Especially if I am not going to have to write a 5,000 word essay about it. I also found the numerous references to Jesuit ballet boring as I have only a vague idea of what these ballets might have been like--think of a movie about the 17th century with people dancing around a richly decorated room and you've probably got it. I actually vaguely remember now that Eloquence of Blood had a lot of Jesuit ballet in it as well. So at this point, I really don’t care about the ballet; give me the mystery please and thank you. In fact, Rock has written a scholarly treatise on the subject of Jesuit ballet that is almost as long as this novel. It’s obviously a specialty of hers. Sometimes I found the storyline for the book was simply a framework for her to expound on this specialty.
Still, if you like baroque ballet or if you want a taste of the politics of the Court of Versailles and how the Jesuits figured in, you might like the book. Be warned though that you really don’t get much about the Jesuits at Versailles. Pere LaChaise, in modern times more famous for the cemetery that is named after him, has a brief role but that’s it. We learn that they had to bow to the king and take their bonnets off, that they slept in small rooms and ate soup most of the time unless they were invited to dine at some nobleman’s table. And, unsurprisingly, that the King's mistresses didn't like them much. Not a lot of mystery there unless it’s how they didn’t all get ptomaine poisoning from eating day old meat broth that had been sitting in an unrefrigerated larder.
There’s an irony in reading “A Plague of Lies” during our coronavirus pandemic. People are falling ill of a mysterious fever in 17th Century Paris in ever increasing numbers but it too is a minor subplot that never really gets off the ground. Instead it provides a possible alternative to the suspicion that a couple of people might have been poisoned at Versailles. Also that someone has it in for King Louis XIV. The dawning of conspiracy theories? There’s also thwarted young love but, for me, none of these storylines really were tightly written enough that I could hang on to a theme and stay up until 1:00 because I had to know what was going to happen. I kept putting the book down, sometimes for weeks at a time. Or falling asleep over it. I only read to the end because I knew I was going to review it here and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t some thrilling occurrence in the last 50 pages that might change my mind about my review. There wasn’t. By the end, I just didn’t care about the tragedy that occurred in the last 50 pages. I figured that things were going to go that way because that’s what happened in 17th century French aristocracy. Think I will stick with books about 20th century France from now on.
It took me a long time to read this, months actually. I purchased it last year intending to read it before I went to Versailles in October as the action—I use the word action somewhat loosely as this book is very slow paced—takes place there. I didn’t, however, start reading it until after I returned at the beginning of November. As it is now mid May you may get an idea of how enthralling I found it.
Reading this book was like ploughing through a History book written by a scholarly historian for a course on Louis XIV. Some of it is interesting but some of it, not so much. Especially if I am not going to have to write a 5,000 word essay about it. I also found the numerous references to Jesuit ballet boring as I have only a vague idea of what these ballets might have been like--think of a movie about the 17th century with people dancing around a richly decorated room and you've probably got it. I actually vaguely remember now that Eloquence of Blood had a lot of Jesuit ballet in it as well. So at this point, I really don’t care about the ballet; give me the mystery please and thank you. In fact, Rock has written a scholarly treatise on the subject of Jesuit ballet that is almost as long as this novel. It’s obviously a specialty of hers. Sometimes I found the storyline for the book was simply a framework for her to expound on this specialty.
Still, if you like baroque ballet or if you want a taste of the politics of the Court of Versailles and how the Jesuits figured in, you might like the book. Be warned though that you really don’t get much about the Jesuits at Versailles. Pere LaChaise, in modern times more famous for the cemetery that is named after him, has a brief role but that’s it. We learn that they had to bow to the king and take their bonnets off, that they slept in small rooms and ate soup most of the time unless they were invited to dine at some nobleman’s table. And, unsurprisingly, that the King's mistresses didn't like them much. Not a lot of mystery there unless it’s how they didn’t all get ptomaine poisoning from eating day old meat broth that had been sitting in an unrefrigerated larder.
There’s an irony in reading “A Plague of Lies” during our coronavirus pandemic. People are falling ill of a mysterious fever in 17th Century Paris in ever increasing numbers but it too is a minor subplot that never really gets off the ground. Instead it provides a possible alternative to the suspicion that a couple of people might have been poisoned at Versailles. Also that someone has it in for King Louis XIV. The dawning of conspiracy theories? There’s also thwarted young love but, for me, none of these storylines really were tightly written enough that I could hang on to a theme and stay up until 1:00 because I had to know what was going to happen. I kept putting the book down, sometimes for weeks at a time. Or falling asleep over it. I only read to the end because I knew I was going to review it here and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t some thrilling occurrence in the last 50 pages that might change my mind about my review. There wasn’t. By the end, I just didn’t care about the tragedy that occurred in the last 50 pages. I figured that things were going to go that way because that’s what happened in 17th century French aristocracy. Think I will stick with books about 20th century France from now on.
January 1, 2019
An historical mystery set during the reign of Louis XIV, full of detailed descriptions of Versailles and what everyone at court wore. This is more literary than fast-paced. The end was predictable, but I enjoyed the book enough that I have added the next in the series to my TBR list.
January 2, 2013
Four and a half stars, but I'll round up because I like this author and want to tilt her ratings up instead of down.
This is the third book in a series of historical mysteries by Judith Rock. I loved her first book, found her second one a bit faltering in cohesiveness, and think she made a solid entry with her third.
Charles de Luc, a young Jesuit aspirant, has to go to Versailles. He is less than thrilled about this, since he dislikes the militarism and vast amounts of spending that Louis XIV is famous for. The plot mechanism for getting him there and involved in intrigue may be a bit clunky, but I was enjoying myself too much to let it bother me. We get gorgeous descriptions of Versailles, the dazzling nobility, the peculiarities of life at court.
I was especially fond of how the author was able to create such a nuanced portrait of Louis XIV with so few direct interactions with him. I sympathized with Charles getting drawn into the orbit of the high-spirited princess. The end may have taken a bit of an easy way out. I was fine with that too, because I'm more interested in the development of Charles as a character than the mechanics of the mystery.
Charles is a genuinely devout young man. I don't really have faith myself, but I'm impressed when an author succeeds in creating a character of faith that is capable of doubt and logical nuanced thinking. I find that mostly religious characters turn out to be bad-guy hypocrites or idiot plot obstacles. Charles, however, believes in a loving and generous God and wants most of all to be close to Him. However, Charles is also compassionate and gets drawn into conflicts of obedience because of his attachment to people. I think that Judith Rock does a great job of portraying an intelligent mind prior to the Age of Reason. I'm looking forward to more of her insights in her next book.
This is the third book in a series of historical mysteries by Judith Rock. I loved her first book, found her second one a bit faltering in cohesiveness, and think she made a solid entry with her third.
Charles de Luc, a young Jesuit aspirant, has to go to Versailles. He is less than thrilled about this, since he dislikes the militarism and vast amounts of spending that Louis XIV is famous for. The plot mechanism for getting him there and involved in intrigue may be a bit clunky, but I was enjoying myself too much to let it bother me. We get gorgeous descriptions of Versailles, the dazzling nobility, the peculiarities of life at court.
I was especially fond of how the author was able to create such a nuanced portrait of Louis XIV with so few direct interactions with him. I sympathized with Charles getting drawn into the orbit of the high-spirited princess. The end may have taken a bit of an easy way out. I was fine with that too, because I'm more interested in the development of Charles as a character than the mechanics of the mystery.
Charles is a genuinely devout young man. I don't really have faith myself, but I'm impressed when an author succeeds in creating a character of faith that is capable of doubt and logical nuanced thinking. I find that mostly religious characters turn out to be bad-guy hypocrites or idiot plot obstacles. Charles, however, believes in a loving and generous God and wants most of all to be close to Him. However, Charles is also compassionate and gets drawn into conflicts of obedience because of his attachment to people. I think that Judith Rock does a great job of portraying an intelligent mind prior to the Age of Reason. I'm looking forward to more of her insights in her next book.
August 8, 2014
I enjoyed this third outing with Maître Charles du Luc, but the action really dragged for me once Charles left Versailles and returned home to Louis le Grand, hence four stars dropping to three stars. I love the world Judith Rock recreates, 1680s France peopled by Jesuits, courtiers, students and peasants; I am unfamiliar with the time and place and like most fans of historical fiction/mystery, I love the genre because I learn so much along with enjoying an exciting puzzle. Here, however, as with her first book, "Rhetoric of Death", I enjoyed the characters and appreciated the depth of research she clearly puts into her work, but found the pacing slowing to a crawl about 3/4 through the book. I skimmed to the last 10 pages or so and things picked up again; I have been unable to get hold of her second book, "Eloquence of Blood", but would be curious to see if I had the same problem. I will definitely read other books in this series as I can find them for the wonderful Maître Charles and his recurring characters of fellow Jesuits and friends and neighbors, and the amazing period Rock brings so vividly to life.
March 15, 2013
I'm so pleased to discover that this is the third historical mystery featuring rhetoric teacher and novice Jesuit Charles du Luc; I can search out the second one that I missed!
The prestigious Louis le Grand Jesuit school has sent a delegation to Versailles to present the gift of a reliquary to King Louis XIV’s second wife, Madame de Maintenon (the former governess of his illegitimate offspring), in hopes of placating her in the matter of the king’s Jesuit confessor’s advice to withhold from her the title of queen. But almost immediately they arrive: a courtier falls dead in his tracks; the entire Jesuit delegation falls dreadfully ill; a palace gardener is found murdered. In the midst of all this, Charles learns that one of his students is in love with the king’s rebellious (and betrothed) daughter, and may ruin not only himself but all of them.
The prestigious Louis le Grand Jesuit school has sent a delegation to Versailles to present the gift of a reliquary to King Louis XIV’s second wife, Madame de Maintenon (the former governess of his illegitimate offspring), in hopes of placating her in the matter of the king’s Jesuit confessor’s advice to withhold from her the title of queen. But almost immediately they arrive: a courtier falls dead in his tracks; the entire Jesuit delegation falls dreadfully ill; a palace gardener is found murdered. In the midst of all this, Charles learns that one of his students is in love with the king’s rebellious (and betrothed) daughter, and may ruin not only himself but all of them.
August 30, 2015
I find myself liking Judith Rock's protagonist, Maitre Charles du Luc, more and more as this series progresses. Rock has created a character whose growth is apparent from book to book. Beginning as a fairly callow young soldier-turned-Jesuit, du Luc is slowly leaving behind his desires to have the Church and the world, too. In this book, the reader finds him confronting his own distaste for court life, difficult personalities, and even the King himself, to move closer to the priest he wants to be.
My enjoyment of these books is slightly tempered by Rock's often languid pacing and her propensity for delaying the real action of the book until fairly late. Still, well-worth the read for the well-researched look into France in the era of the Sun King, its politics, religion, and common life.
My enjoyment of these books is slightly tempered by Rock's often languid pacing and her propensity for delaying the real action of the book until fairly late. Still, well-worth the read for the well-researched look into France in the era of the Sun King, its politics, religion, and common life.
October 7, 2012
2.5
I was slightly disappointed in the latest Charles de Luc mystery. Not that it was downright terrible; it was not. Plague of Lies just seemed, to me, to be lacking in some crucial piece that makes a mystery great. Through the last couple of pages I kept anticipating a twist, or at the very least complete resolution to the "who done it". There was neither.
I also took issue with the uneven and incomplete picture painted of most of the characters. I never got a really good impression of who any of them truly were.
Overall, Plague of Lies seemed more of a giant hint at Charles' increasing confusion over his vocation. It will be interesting to see where that goes in his next adventure, which I will definitely read.
I was slightly disappointed in the latest Charles de Luc mystery. Not that it was downright terrible; it was not. Plague of Lies just seemed, to me, to be lacking in some crucial piece that makes a mystery great. Through the last couple of pages I kept anticipating a twist, or at the very least complete resolution to the "who done it". There was neither.
I also took issue with the uneven and incomplete picture painted of most of the characters. I never got a really good impression of who any of them truly were.
Overall, Plague of Lies seemed more of a giant hint at Charles' increasing confusion over his vocation. It will be interesting to see where that goes in his next adventure, which I will definitely read.
September 19, 2013
My new favorite mystery series. I've read the first three and eagerly await #4. I confess that while the writing is elegant, and the world building superb, it’s my favorite because I’m a bit in love with the Jesuit priest hero, Charles. And actually, with the characters in general. For me, they are very vivid, leaping off the page and into the beautifully rendered realm of 16th Century Paris. I especially loved the first one, because it was very focused on Charles. In the second book, I was quite taken with the beggar queen, Reine. The third, A PLAGUE OF LIES is a particular favorite for the world-building, as we go to Versailles. Much poisonous plotting and infamous court intrigue amid glossy satins and oozings of lace. A delightful series, dark-edged but warm-hearted.
October 24, 2012
Loved it. I can see how some people might be unhappy with this entry in the series, as much of the action takes place not near Louis le Grand but in the palace of King Louis XIV at Versailles. Personally I loved observing Charles out of his comfort zone and dealing with the intrigues of court. The mystery itself was okay, interesting while it was going on but without much resolution at the end. Quite a few times I wanted to reach through the book and slap some of the pampered students Charles has to deal with. But I read this fairly quickly in the limited reading time I had. I really like the characters and enjoy the sense of time and place the author has created here.
November 16, 2014
Charles du Lac is embroiled in the politics of Versailles as he accompanies Pere Jouvancy with a religious relic for Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's 2nd wife. The gift is being given in the hope of fostering better relations with Louis' confessor, Pere La Chaise and the Jesuits.
Charles, however, soon finds himself in the midst of death, mystery and the king's oldest daughter, Lulu's (16) resistance to her upcoming marriage to a Polish prince only 10 years old.
This book is high melodrama and the end does not disappoint that.
Charles, however, soon finds himself in the midst of death, mystery and the king's oldest daughter, Lulu's (16) resistance to her upcoming marriage to a Polish prince only 10 years old.
This book is high melodrama and the end does not disappoint that.
August 13, 2013
The novel presents us with a convoluted plot but also with a fascinating portrait of the court at Versailles. Rock’s knowledge of the period, even of how the places she describes would have appeared at that time, seems convincingly complete. Her novels are always absorbing.
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/a...
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/a...
June 20, 2014
Even though this is the fourth book in the series it was my first encounter with Charles du Luc. I enjoyed he give portrayal of the court of the sun King through the jaundiced eyes of Charles, a retired soldier turned Jesuit rhetoric professor. The mystery was well plotted though I thought the conclusion a little rushed. But overall a series I will return to.
August 2, 2013
Enjoyed all three of Judith Rock books featuring the Jesuit maitre/detective Charles du Luc. The author creates an authentic sense of place and time that transported me to the streets of Paris in the late 1600's. This third book goes royal with events occurring at Versailles and Marly palaces.
November 19, 2012
Wonderful detail to setting, mood, and character development. I love how we are included in Charles' mental reflections.
October 17, 2012
The best yet! A couldn't put down read! Do we have to wait a year for the next one? Such an exciting series....and her historical research is right on!
December 23, 2012
A cleverly written adventure, that is impressive due to the author's knowledge of the period.
November 5, 2012
don't read that many historical mysteries, but I really like this series. 17th century Paris, Jesuits, poison, treason and plot.
September 22, 2013
When you deceive, lies will catch up with you as they do in this 17th century mystery set in Paris in a Jesuit School. A delight to read
April 26, 2013
The best of this series so far. Looking forward to the next.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews