The Invention of Fire

Starred review from February 23, 2015
The invention of handguns presages a radical change in warfare in Holsinger’s skillful and engrossing second medieval whodunit (after 2014’s A Burnable Book). In London in 1386, the bodies of 16 unidentified men, who have been slaughtered in some unknown fashion, are found in a public privy. Poet John Gower, a colleague of Geoffrey Chaucer, is asked to look into the deaths by Ralph Strode, an old friend who was once a criminal court judge. Strode warns him that not everyone is eager for a solution. Nicholas Brembre, “perhaps the most powerful mayor in London’s history,” is reported to have destroyed evidence and threatens anyone who even mentions the massacre. Strode correctly predicts that Gower’s “devotion to the right way” will move him to seek the truth, a challenge made even greater by the investigator’s fears that he’s going blind. Holsinger is equally adept at depicting the machinations of the rich and powerful and the fears and hopes of the working class, “desperate to hold on to their small scraps of ground in the face of the great events unfolding around them.” Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).

Simon Vance narrates Holsinger's second mystery, a convoluted story of the birth of the handgun in late 1300s London. Who is making the handguns and for whom, and are they for use against the Crown, the French, or the English? Private investigator John Gower is hired to find out who murdered 16 men with handguns and tossed them into a privy ditch. Intertwined with the murder investigation is the story of the actual invention of handguns. Switching between upper- and lower-class British and French accents, Vance follows Gower, who is helped by Geoffrey Chaucer, as he ferrets out the truth about the guns. Vivid descriptions of London, poverty, punishments, and guild work are interspersed with the murder investigation. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 1, 2015

Holsinger's second historical thriller (after A Burnable Book) once again features John Gower, friend of Geoffrey Chaucer and fellow poet, who earns his bread by trading in dark secrets. In 1386 London few believe in the king, Richard II, whose kingdom is careening its way toward disaster: it's difficult to know whom to trust. Gower is called on to investigate the murders of 16 men, whose corpses have been found dumped in the stream below the Long Dropper, a public privy. Their bodies bear harsh wounds, as though pierced by cannonballs but of a much smaller bore than those then in use. Gower suspects the men were killed by a new kind of weapon, the handgonne, but who made them and why are unanswered questions. The search takes John on a dangerous quest, with a surprise at the end. VERDICT This excellent period mystery is narrated in a gloriously earthy language that is, long before Shakespeare and the King James Bible, still in the process of taking shape. Fans of the previous book as well as aficionados of the historical genre won't be able to put this novel down. [See Prepub Alert, 10/13/14.]--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Prize-winning medieval scholar Holsinger turned heads last year with his fiction debut, "A Burnable Book", set in 1385 London and featuring poet John Gower. Gower is back for another adventure that again has some eerily modern echoes. The sheriff needs Gower's help after 16 dead men are found dumped in a privy, their bodies ragged with inexplicable holes. Sound like gunshot wounds? You're right; apparently, the men were test victims for an awful new weapon called the handgonne.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014

Prize-winning medieval scholar Holsinger turned heads last year with his fiction debut, A Burnable Book, set in 1385 London and featuring poet John Gower. Gower is back for another adventure that again has some eerily modern echoes. The sheriff needs Gower's help after 16 dead men are found dumped in a privy, their bodies ragged with inexplicable holes. Sound like gunshot wounds? You're right; apparently, the men were test victims for an awful new weapon called the handgonne.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Second installment in Holsinger's series starring medieval detective John Gower.While investigating a grisly mass murder-the bodies of 16 men were dumped in a London sewer-Gower makes the startling discovery that all were, apparently, killed by a recent innovation: a rudimentary rifle known as a "handgonne." As in the previous volume (A Burnable Book, 2014), the narration occasionally shifts away from Gower to the voices of others whose connections to the central mystery emerge in increments. Stephen Marsh, a blacksmith whose error in tipping a cauldron of molten metal caused his master's death, has been sentenced to 10 years' indenture to the master's widow, Hawisia. Marsh's skills have attracted the attention of Snell, chief armorer to King Richard. Soon Marsh is crafting handgonnes at night, without Hawisia's knowledge, or so he thinks. Robert and Margery, disguised as pilgrims, are on the road north, having broken out of jail. (She's wanted for killing her brutal husband and he for poaching the king's game.) They may have escaped just in time to avoid the fate of the sewer-bound 16. After happening on a forest splintered by shot, Gower and his best friend, Chaucer, are briefly detained by the Duke of Gloucester. Another massacre occurs: a surprise attack on a busy Calais market with handgonnes-a more unwieldy variant that requires two men to shoot. The killers wear armbands of cloth bearing Gloucester's heraldry of intertwined swans; similar badges were found on 10 of the London victims. To employ parlance never stooped to by Holsinger, is someone trying to frame Gloucester? One of the chief delights here is the language, which convincingly mimics Chaucerian speech. Exhaustive detail on London infrastructure and the newly forged handgun industry can sometimes stultify compared to the vivid scenes of daily life circa 1386: the endless bribery required to get anything done, the struggles of women high and low, even Gower's losing battle with what appears to be encroaching macular degeneration.A cautionary tale that argues powerfully against handgonnes and their modern descendants.