Title: Gripping, exciting, and surprisingly sentimental.
Product review: Iain Pears "An Instance of the Fingerpost" virtually demands the reader be familiar with the history of England in the 17th Century and to some degree the geography of Oxford in the era. His description of events and personalities unravel oh-so-slowly that the reader gets surprised at every turn. The four principal characters each provide an account of a complicated murder mystery. Each appears quite different in their own account versus the other 3 accounts. A fifth character, Sarah Blundy, seems to be the same in each account with only minor revelations provided, at least until the surprise ending. Pears' novel takes a strange twist into the supernatural at the end, but he keeps it clear as to why the twist occurs. Overall, powerfully written, an intellectual tour de force, similar to Eco's "Name of the Rose" and "Foucault's Pendulum."
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