The Invention of Fire: A Novel

by Bruce Holsinger Narrated by Simon Vance

Overview

The author of the acclaimed medieval mystery A Burnable Book once again brings fourteenth-century London alive in all its color and detail in this riveting thriller featuring medieval poet and fixer John Gower-a twisty tale rife with intrigue, danger mystery, and murder.

Though he is one of England's most acclaimed intellectuals, John Gower is no stranger to London's wretched slums and dark corners, and he knows how to trade on the secrets of the kingdom's most powerful men. When the bodies of sixteen unknown men are found in a privy, the Sheriff of London seeks Gower's help. The men's wounds-ragged holes created by an unknown object-are unlike anything the sheriff's men have ever seen. Tossed into the sewer, the bodies were meant to be found. Gower believes the men may have been used in an experiment-a test for a fearsome new war weapon his informants call the “handgonne,” claiming it will be the “future of death” if its design can be perfected.

Propelled by questions of his own, Gower turns to courtier and civil servant Geoffrey Chaucer, who is working on some poems about pilgrims that Gower finds rather vulgar. Chaucer thinks he just may know who commissioned this new weapon, an extremely valuable piece of information that some will pay a high price for-and others will kill to conceal. . .*

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 02/23/2015
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). (Apr.)

From the Publisher

The poet John Gower is the perfect narrator and amateur sleuth. . . . Holsinger’s research, alongside the energetic vulgarity of a language in flux, delivers up a world where even the filth is colorful.” — New York Times Book Review

“[A] skillful and engrossing second medieval whodunit… Holsinger is equally adept at depicting the machinations of the rich and powerful and the fears and hopes of the working class.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“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. ” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Absorbing . . . Gower’s self-deprecating wit and Holsinger’s skillful conjuring of detailed mental images will appeal to fans of C. J. Sansom and Ariana Franklin.” — Booklist

“Authenticity is the hallmark of this world Holsinger so vividly brings to life, and his use of period language and words (wherry, groats) adds another fascinating layer of believability….Holsinger’s medieval mystery featuring two famous writers succeeds on every level and will have readers hoping for more.” — Shelf Awareness

“I was swept along by the quality of the writing and the remarkable wealth of detail; at the end I thought all its pieces came together in a satisfying whole . . . The past rarely comes this splendidly to life.” — Washington Post

“Perhaps the unlikeliest sleuthing duo in literary-thriller history, Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, return in Holsinger’s second medieval mystery…What they find has terrible implication for their era - and ours - in this fascinating, bawdy and quite fun book.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Holsinger is a graceful guide to the 14th century, lacing his thriller with just the right seasoning of antique words and all the necessary historical detail without any of the fusty smell of a documentary.” — Washington Post

Booklist

Absorbing . . . Gower’s self-deprecating wit and Holsinger’s skillful conjuring of detailed mental images will appeal to fans of C. J. Sansom and Ariana Franklin.

Washington Post

I was swept along by the quality of the writing and the remarkable wealth of detail; at the end I thought all its pieces came together in a satisfying whole . . . The past rarely comes this splendidly to life.

Shelf Awareness

Authenticity is the hallmark of this world Holsinger so vividly brings to life, and his use of period language and words (wherry, groats) adds another fascinating layer of believability….Holsinger’s medieval mystery featuring two famous writers succeeds on every level and will have readers hoping for more.

New York Times Book Review

The poet John Gower is the perfect narrator and amateur sleuth. . . . Holsinger’s research, alongside the energetic vulgarity of a language in flux, delivers up a world where even the filth is colorful.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Perhaps the unlikeliest sleuthing duo in literary-thriller history, Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, return in Holsinger’s second medieval mystery…What they find has terrible implication for their era - and ours - in this fascinating, bawdy and quite fun book.

Booklist

Absorbing . . . Gower’s self-deprecating wit and Holsinger’s skillful conjuring of detailed mental images will appeal to fans of C. J. Sansom and Ariana Franklin.

Washington Post

I was swept along by the quality of the writing and the remarkable wealth of detail; at the end I thought all its pieces came together in a satisfying whole . . . The past rarely comes this splendidly to life.

Library Journal

★ 03/01/2015
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

JUNE 2015 - AudioFile

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

Kirkus Reviews

2015-02-03
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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170353514
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/21/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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