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).

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

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