An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Pears, Iain
Inventory #: 00635
Price: $15.00

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An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Pears, Iain. Riverhead Books: New York, 1998. Edition: First edition with full number line. ISBN: 1573220825. Hardcover, 691 pages. Quarter bound in black cloth over tan, paper-covered boards; gilt lettering on spine and cover; orange end papers.

Condition: Fine in a Near Fine jacket. Jacket lightly rubbed, and small section of spot-varnish pulled off when sticker removed. (This last is not visible unless you hold the book at an angle.)

Contents: From the jacket

We are in England in the 1660s. Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Oliver Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder.

We hear the story of the death from four witnesses: an Italian physician intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the sone of an alleged Royalist traitor; a master cryptographer who has worked for both Cromwell and the king; and a renouned Oxford antiquarian. Each tells his own version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.

AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST 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.