An Instance of the Fingerpost
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| Author | Iain Pears |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical, Mystery |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
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Publication date
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September 1997 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 692 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 37781458 |
An Instance of the Fingerpost is a 1997 historical mystery novel by Iain Pears.
A murder in 17th-century Oxford is related from the contradictory points of view of four of the characters, all of them unreliable narrators. The setting of the novel is 1663, just after the restoration of the monarchy following the English Civil War, when the authority of King Charles II is not yet settled, and conspiracies abound.
Most of the characters are historical figures. Two of the narrators are the mathematician John Wallis and the historian Anthony Wood. Other characters include the philosopher John Locke, the scientists Robert Boyle and Richard Lower, spymaster John Thurloe, and inventor Samuel Morland. The plot is at first centred on the death of Robert Grove but later takes in the conspiracies of John Mordaunt and William Compton (of Compton Wynyates), and the politics of Henry Bennet and Lord Clarendon. Furthermore, the characters that are fictional are nonetheless drawn from real events. The story of Sarah Blundy incorporates that of Anne Greene, while Jack Prestcott is involved in events based on the life of Richard Willis (of the Sealed Knot).
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