The Rhetoric of Death

It is 1686 and Louis XIV has just revoked the Edict of Nantes.  Now there is no protection for the Huguenots.  They must accept Catholicism or die.  Maitre Charles du Luc of the Jesuits sets out to protect Pernelle, his former betrothed, and her children, at the risk to his own life.  Fortunately, afterwards, the bishop sends him to Paris to teach rhetoric.

A day after arriving at the Jesuit college in Paris, a young lad is run down by a man on a horse.  The lad is the nephew of of of the other teachers, and the godson of another.  Charles is told one version of the events while the godfather gives him another.  Charles wonders how Antoine got the cut on his head as it is inconsistent with the evidence told him.

Shortly thereafter, Charles discovers the body of Antoine's older brother Phillipe stuffed inside the latrine.  Charles is asked by the rector of the college to investigate the death.  After the funeral of Phillipe, Antoine tells Charles that his godfather, pere Guise took a note from his pocket that Phillipe had apparently sent him.  This makes Charles very curious about Guise's role in the death and apparent accident.

Unfortunately Charles has been told to back off on the investigation.  Guise has also attempted to make him suspect in the eyes of the police.  The head of the police orders Charles to be his spy within the college; what can he do but acquiesce?  It isn't long after this that Charles overhears a plot to sent French soldiers to England to help James II keep his throne and return England to Catholicism.  He is wounded as a result.

When someone attempts to poison Antoine, answers slowly come forth about the scheme set in motion to eliminate him and his brother.  Author Judith Rock has created an exciting historical murder mystery.  I am looking forward to reading the sequel.