Ian Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

We recently read this book in my bookgroup (not mine really, but I'm a member ;-) and it was one that several people needed encouragement to get through. It's a fascinating book, but not a quick or light read. Some have compared it to Eco's Name of the Rose, but I can't say, since I haven't gotten around to reading that book yet -- it is on my reading list, though! At least to some extent, An Intance of the Fingerpost is a historical murder mystery, set in Oxford in the 1660's, shortly after the death of Crowell and the restoration of the Monarchy. On a more profound level, however, the mystery is not so much a whodunnit, but rather who can say whodunnit. In other words, the true question is whether or not there is such a thing as knowlege of truth. Does there really exist the fingerpost to which Francis Bacon alluded, "the piece of evidence that excludes all but one possibility"? [By the way, a fingerpost is a directional sign, shaped like a finger, pointing the direction to go.]

The story unfolds with the delightful narrative of one Marco da Cola, a wealthy and cosmopolitan Venetian scholar who claims to be in Oxford to further his study of science. During the course of his visit one of the Masters of Oxford is murdered and a young woman of da Cola's brief acquainance is accused. Confusion arrises when da Cola's narrative ends and the that of the second narrative begins. In all there are four first person narratives. Each builds on and discredits the previous. The first two characters are fictional (although Jack Prescott is based on a historical person), but the last two are actual historical figures; prominant mathematician and cryptographer John Wallis and the scholarly antiquarian Anthony Wood.

Through these narrations, the question of truth and the reliability of witnesses may become blurred, but the details of seventeenth century life, [scholarship, philosophy, commerce, fashion, religion, medicine and politics] come into focus in all life's complexity.

Salon Books Review of the Book

Box Content Info on Book

ReadThis Review of the book

Mathematical Fiction review of the book

purefiction review of the book

Discussion Questions