The Inquisitor: A Novel [Hardcover]

Catherine Jinks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2002

I hereby record those events which took place in and around the city of Lazet relating to the assassination of our venerable Brother Augustin Duese in the year of the Incarnate Word, 1318.

So writes Brother Bernard, an Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity, following the discovery of his superior's dismembered corpse. At a time when heresy is a heinous offence, routed out with ruthless determination, Brother Bernard is accustomed to dispensing harsh justice. But as he attempts to make sense of this shocking crime, he himself becomes an object of persecution-thanks to his passionate involvement with a mysterious suspect and her beautiful daughter.

Pursued as a heretic, implicated as a murderer, Bernard must now face his accusers. To fail such a task, in fourteenth century France, means certain death.

In the tradition of The Name of the Rose, Catherine Jinks has crafted a magnificent tale of murder, forbidden lust and betrayal.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It takes an accomplished writer with a thorough background in medieval history to not only bring a forgotten era to life but also to create an Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity who is a sympathetic protagonist. This well-crafted tale of ecclesiastical murder and betrayal in 14th-century France is narrated by Brother Bernard, the aforementioned Inquisitor, whose superior in the Holy Office is murdered, along with his bodyguards, while returning from a visit to a household of women suspected of heresy. Brother Bernard's investigation of Father Augustin's murder leads him to discover the secret the friar may have been killed to protect, and sets him up to be denounced as a heretic himself and implicated in Augustin's death. Caught between his unknown enemies and his own unholy passion, Brother Bernard must unmask the real killer and reveal the motive for his crime in order to save himself and the woman he has come to love. This fascinating mystery is sure to appeal to readers who've been waiting for a worthy successor to The Name of the Rose. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

In her American debut, Australian Jinks provides a fast-moving and entertaining look at medieval France under strict church rule. Writing in the form of an extended confessional, overworked "Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity" Father Bernard Peyre complains that he's kept off balance by the Holy Office, which is continually sending high-ranking clergy to his priory at Lazet to oversee his work rooting out and punishing local heretics. One of these superiors, Father Augustin, is brutally murdered and his corpse dismembered, suggesting fiendish agents at work. Bernard's own investigation uncovers instead a forbidden affair between the victim and the beautiful, wild Johanna de Caussade. In this often satirical tale of corrupt ecclesiastical machinations in the Middle Ages, we encounter sorcerers and necromancers, mostly imagined, and witness an auto-da-f‚ staged by a church tyrant intent on frightening the population and establishing his power. Self-indulgent Bishop Anselm, more interested in horseflesh than piety, has hands so bejeweled that "One must search very hard... to find the episcopal ring to kiss." With Latin prayers and Biblical injunctions aptly placed throughout the story, Bernard becomes a sympathetic and engaging narrator, especially when he too succumbs to the pleasures of the flesh only to be haunted by guilt afterward. A gripping escape sequence concludes this timely expos‚ of church scandals in a bygone era.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (October 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312308159
• ISBN-13: 978-0312308155
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,055,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic, irreverent and witty, November 7, 2002

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inquisitor: A Novel (Hardcover)

Australian author Jinks debut features an unusual protagonist, Brother Bernard, Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity, in Lazet, France, in 1318. Bernard is a devout but irreverent soul whose narrative is a defense against accusations following his investigation of the murder of a superior, the ascetic Father Augustin.

Augustin and his guards were dismembered, their body parts strewn over the countryside. But the sharp-witted Bernard (as he is quick to declare himself) soon questions whether the butchery was only to disguise a missing body  the culprit. Assigned a new superior who blames the murder on sorcery, the horrified Bernard struggles to discover the truth and conceal his newfound passion for a suspect.

Jinks breathes life into her narrator, a man of complex passions and humor, proud of his work in keeping heresy from taking root. Exploring the phenomenon of the Inquisition, Jinks shows how fanatics joined forces with Church bureaucrats like Bernard; how fear drove hysteria; how neighbor turned on neighbor. This world, so strange and repugnant to the modern mind, so ordinary to Bernard, gains understanding with the reader as it loses luster for Bernard. Well-written and penetrating, as well as entertaining and well paced, this deserves wide readership.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling examination of self-delusion, December 17, 2002

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Inquisitor: A Novel (Hardcover)

Bernard Peyre enjoys his job as an inquisitor in 14th century France, and believes that he serves a critical role in rooting out heretics and preserving the church. When he gets a new boss, he wonders whether the man might be too strict, but he respects Father Augustin's faith and willingness to re-open old cases--to go after heretics that might have somehow escaped his predecessor. Still, Bernard is concerned that Augustin seems fascinated by a small group of women, living together without the benefit of a priest's oversight. Women, Bernard knows, are surely a cause of a man's downfall.

When Augustin is found, murdered, while returning from a visit to these women, Bernard is concerned that a heretic might have struck. He visits the women and finds himself in love with one of them. As a monk, Bernard's vows prohibit sexual love, but he is convinced that this love is somehow sacred despite his friend and confessor's strong warnings. When Bernard's new boss arrives with concerns over demon summoning--something that Bernard knows has not happened in his region, things begin to fall out of control.

Author Catherine Jinks gives life and insight into religious life in medieval France. To the end, Bernard believes in the inquisition, despite what it does to himself and those he loves. Bernard is a wonderful character--quick to justify his actions even when they are truly out of line, often unable to separate lust from divine rapture, and proud of his intelligence at the same time as he is aware of (at least some of) his shortcomings. THE INQUISITOR is not a who-dunnit type of mystery, but it is a fascinating exploration of man's capability for self-delusion and of good intentions leading to terrible results.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars insightful authentic historical novel, September 28, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inquisitor: A Novel (Hardcover)

Early in the fourteenth century in Lazet, France Dominican Brother Bernard enjoys his pious position as assistant to Father Jacques, the Head of the Inquisition into Heretical Depravity. However, Brother Bernard's comfortable lifestyle abruptly ends in 1318 when someone kills Father Jacques, dismembering the corpse.

Ailing ascetic Father Augustin replaces Father Jacques and quickly digs deep into the homicide as well as several incidents in which his predecessor declared local VIPs free of heresy. Demanding the accounts of the Inquisitorial registers, Father Augustin learns several are missing. Father Augustin also makes inquiries into an enclave of women living just outside of Lazet, thinking females living alone practice witchcraft or prostitution. However, a massacre occurs as someone(s) slices up Augustin and his ensemble. The new Inquisition leader Pierre-Julien plans to prove that the women and Bernard are ritual murdering heretics even if he lacks any evidence.

Those readers who demand authenticity in a historical novel will prefer the uncompromising and invigorating look at the fourteenth century through the mindset of a Dominican Inquisitor. Bernard's first person narration enables the reader to observe what seems so hypocritical from the perspective of modern times as the Inquisitors use biblical doctrine to defend their "under God" actions. Catherine Jinks' well written and insightful debut novel is a triumph for those who desire accuracy, but the audience should realize that it will take the paradigm switch of a historiographer to appreciate this deep look at a period of religious fervor and terror.

Harriet Klausner