- Published: 2 October 1998
- ISBN: 9780099751816
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 704
- RRP: $35.00
An Instance of the Fingerpost
Explore the murky world of 17th-century Oxford in this iconic historical thriller
- Published: 2 October 1998
- ISBN: 9780099751816
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 704
- RRP: $35.00
The kind of book that has you reading it by torchlight under the bedclothes. An historical detective story set to rival The Name of the Rose, it provides the rare pleasure of combining an intricate plot with insight into the political intrigues of Restoration England
The Times
Plenty of politics, high and low and the portrayal of college life and vicious, teeming with sycophants and thick with double dealing
Guardian
Anyone who reads this will want to tell their friends about it... This is a novel that combines the simple pleasures of Agatha Christie with the intellectual subtlety of Umberto Eco, don't let it pass by unread
Sunday Times
Brilliantly researched and imagined...a remarkable achievement
Sunday Telegraph
Crammed with period detail, it's as much a novel of ideas as it is of character
Val McDermid, The Week
A fictional tour de force which combines erudition with mystery
P D James
Pears brings to life a vibrant 17th-century world...a tour de force
Daily Telegraph
A deeply scholarly thriller, but with the learning worn lightly and all the elements of the plot clicking together smoothly
Independent
Pear's novel interweaves the grand narratives and the personal tragedies of history with a slippery thriller of audacious ingenuity
Independent on Sunday
The best fiction I have read in a long time
Clive Stafford Smith, Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year*
One of the very best historical novels ever written
Tom Holland