3 Review(s)

The 1660s were a time of great ferment-intellesctual, religious and political-and this is reflected in Pear`s text. The novel is centred ona suspicious death, that of Robert Grove, fellow of New College. We hear about it from four witnesses, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of a supposed traitor to th Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles 1l a mathematician, theologican and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiqary. Each of the first three witnesses is unreli-able and only Wood, in the final volume, reveals the truth. Brilliantly written, utterly convincing, gripping from the first page to the last, AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST is destined to be a major international bestseller.