The Inquisitor
(CATHERINE JINKS)
An inquisitor in southern France in the early 14th century,
Dominican Father Bernard Peyre''s job is rooting out remnant Cathars. Shrewd and
empathic, he is an effective inquisitor, but when his superior starts looking
through old depositions for evidence of corruption and is brutally murdered, he
has to become a detective as well. The Inquisitor starts off as a kind
of inquisition procedural, introducing us to the personnel and workings of the
Holy Office and the other powers in the town, the Bishop, the Seneschal, and
the Prior. But authorities can''t always be trusted, approved procedures are not
always followed, and the replacement chief inquisitor is more interested in demonic
magic than in heresy ? and has a personal grudge against Bernard. Even worse,
Bernard has fallen in love, endangering his vows and clouding his judgment, and
his situation rapidly becomes untenable.
The Inquisitor purports to be written by Bernard, though of course
no one in the 14th century could have written something that works as a modern
novel. Clever sleight of hand by Jinks stops us noticing the contrivance,
however, and the result works both as a thriller and a historical novel. The
background exposition necessary for a reader without knowledge of the period is
unobtrusively slipped in and the language and characterizations capture
something of the spirit of the times without making the novel indigestible.
Bernard in particular is a fine psychological study: he may occasionally seem
anachronistic in his sensibilities, but he is not just a modern dressed up in
historical costume.
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- The Czar''s Madman
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