An Instance of the Fingerpost: Explore the murky world of 17th-century Oxford in this iconic historical thriller

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A murder in 17th-century Oxford is related from the contradictory points of view of four of the characters, all of them unreliable narrators. Based on the above and the many comments (which also lead me to think the book is quite strange as well), I am no longer wondering - pass.

Reading guide for An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

Other places have fingerpost arms with white writing on a green background which indicates the most minor of lanes, sometimes known as 'drift roads'. A review of a novel that barely mentions its central plot, or many of its important features or themes, is perhaps a little unorthodox — but this is precisely in keeping with the novel itself. Roman Clodia wrote: "Yes, seems to be a Marmite book as I'm the same as Jill on this one, and also struggled with Pears' The Portrait. The novel is narrated by four different narrators, each of which tells his version of the story: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic physician who has just arrived in England; Jack Prescott, son of a Royalist traitor who is bound on clearing his father's name; John Wallis, a genius mathematician and cryptographer who served both Cromwell and Charles II, who has a fondness for conspiracies; and lastly Anthony Wood, an Oxford antiquarian. Jill wrote: "I was willing to go along with the suggestion that Nancy was the messiah, and that there was one in each generation, but the fact that she was resurrected without much opposition and then sent abroad did seem rather a wet squib ending.I've finished now and enjoyed the start and the end, but found it rather dry and hard to stick with during the middle, where the long-winded style does slow it down, I feel. I was willing to go along with the suggestion that Nancy was the messiah, and that there was one in each generation, but the fact that she was resurrected without much opposition and then sent abroad did seem rather a wet squib ending. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.

An Instance of the Fingerpost, First Edition - AbeBooks An Instance of the Fingerpost, First Edition - AbeBooks

The events of An Instance of The Fingerpost are set in motion by the death of an Oxford don and the subsequent trial of Sarah Blundy, the woman accused of his murder. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions. I can handle slow and overlook over-wordy, and even at times the dreaded purple prose provided story/character work well. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U. A fingerpost (sometimes referred to as a guide post) is a type of sign post consisting of a post with one or more arms, known as fingers, pointing in the direction of travel to places named on the fingers, often including distance information.Each of these characters maneuvers through the web of Oxford rivalries and plots, and has his own version of the story to tell. Except maybe Wallis, who doesn't really seem to care one way or the other about her morals as long as she can be used in his elaborate plot to foil an imaginary assassination attempt. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. It's a commonplace (at least in academia) that literary history is a kind of detective work, but only an academic as brilliant as Nabokov could possibly construct a compelling novel around a dreadful poet.