The Whispering of Bones
Judith Rock

Genre:
Mystery
Rating:

“Rich with telling detail and a deep feeling for time and place,”* Judith Rock¹s historical mysteries are "a great mix of mystery, excitement and intrigue...a truly excellent series.”**

Paris, 1687.
The last thing Jesuit Charles du Luc and his elderly confessor expect to find in an ancient crypt is a newly murdered body. Even more troubling, the shock of discovering the victim—a young man about to enter their order—proves too much for Charles’s companion. Vowing justice, Charles wants nothing more than to discover the killer, but is unexpectedly restrained from investigation.

At the same moment, a fellow soldier has also entered the Jesuit Novice House, bringing Charles’s worst battlefield secret back to haunt him. And when another Jesuit disappears from the college of Louis le Grand and Charles himself is attacked, he begins to wonder whether there might be something more sinister afoot. All signs point to someone targeting Jesuits—and not even an ex-soldier like Charles may be able to escape...

Review

For fans of:  Maureen Ash

Paris, 1687.  A young man about to join the Jesuit order is found dead in the church of Notre Dame des Champs. Days later, a Jesuit scholastic goes missing, leaving behind nothing but a blood-soaked cassock. The fact that both victims had ties to the same religious society seems like nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence – until another Jesuit scholastic, our hero Charles du Lac, is attacked and left for dead.

Charles’ wounds don’t prove fatal, but he’s loath to stand idly by while an unknown assailant targets fellow Jesuits. Can he help Paris police chief Lieutenant-General La Reynie catch the culprit and bring him to justice – or will his investigative efforts merely inspire his would-be killer to come back and finish the job?

I'm not usually a fan of historical mysteries, but I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut the past couple of weeks so I decided to switch things up with The Whispering of Bones by Judith Rock. It’s the fourth of Rock’s Charles du Luc Novels, and I’m happy to report that it’s a thoroughly engrossing read. Rock does a marvelous job educating her readers about the world in which her book is set. She provides just enough information about 1600s-era Paris and the Jesuit order to set the scene and inform her characters and her story, but not so much as to make you feel as though you’re sitting through a history lecture. The end result is a quickly paced and expertly plotted mystery that’s accessible to even the least historically curious among us.

Perhaps my favorite thing about The Whispering of Bones, though, is just how deeply philosophical a tale it is. Charles is an unfailingly good man, but he’s not without his emotional baggage or inner turmoil. His struggles with guilt, grief, and the ghosts of his past, coupled with his attempts to square what he believes to be right with what authority dictates to be so are not only compelling, but thought provoking, as well. And Rock does a beautiful job of using both Charles and her central mystery to illustrate that while religious doctrine can certainly complicate matters, unfettered faith has the ability to provide great clarity.

Reviewed by Kat