Jesuit scholar Charles du Luc is at the center of another
mystery! While assisting his confessor to an ancient crypt
inside Notre Dame des Champs, Charles stumbles upon the body
of a newly murdered young man. The horrific death sends
Charles's confessor into shock from which he never recovers.
Charles vows to find the murderer, but his path to becoming
a priest in in jeopardy. Is finding justice more important
to Charles than continuing his path to the Lord? To add to
his troubles, an old military friend enters the Jesuit
Novice House and risks exposing Charles's greatest shame. As
more Jesuit priests begin to disappear, Charles faces a
mystery that places him squarely in the killer's path, but
can he overcome his personal need for vengeance to find a
justice that doesn't destroy his future?
THE WHISPERING OF BONES by Judith Rock mixes murder, faith,
and an unbreakable need for justice in this fascinating
historical mystery set in 1687 Paris. With its richly
detailed setting to the tense atmosphere of ever-shifting
politics inside the Catholic Church and France, THE
WHISPERING OF BONES is a suspenseful mystery that winds and
twists like the streets of Paris. Charles du Luc is an
exceptional character. Engaging, strong-willed, intelligent,
and introspective, Charles is a detective before the word
detective existed. With the modern use of forensic evidence,
it is easy to forget a time when science wasn't used to
solve mysteries. Charles's keen observations, the fragile
web of clues he must pull together into a cohesive story,
make for a highly compelling mystery that will leave you
guessing right up to the emotionally tense climax.
THE WHISPERING OF BONES by Judith Rock engages the reader
from the first sentence. The title immediately caught my
attention because it is beautiful and evocative. The prose
flows beautifully to create the feeling of Paris in the
1600's, but it is Ms. Rock's ability to make this murder and
Charles's own motivations relevant to modern society that
really set this historical mystery apart. Charles's struggle
to forgive himself of his past actions, to recognize the
flaws within himself, and still strive to be a man of god, a
man who can find justice, a man who wants to be a little
better than he was the day before is a characteristic that
many of us still feel. THE WHISPERING OF BONES is a must
read for fans of historical mysteries. Judith Rock will not
disappoint.
Paris, 1687. The last thing Jesuit Charles du Luc and his elderly confessor expect to find in an ancient crypt is a newly murdered body. Even more troubling, the shock of discovering the victim—a young man about to enter their order—proves too much for Charles’s companion. Vowing justice, Charles wants nothing more than to discover the killer, but is unexpectedly restrained from investigation. At the same moment, a fellow soldier has also entered the Jesuit Novice House, bringing Charles’s worst battlefield secret back to haunt him. And when another Jesuit disappears from the college of Louis le Grand and Charles himself is attacked, he begins to wonder whether there might be something more sinister afoot. All signs point to someone targeting Jesuits—and not even an ex-soldier like Charles may be able to escape...
Excerpt
In this excerpt from chapter one, two Jesuits, Charles du Luc and his elderly confessor Père Dainville, go to pray in an ancient crypt outside the Paris city wall, where the Jesuits' founder Ignatius of Loyola had often prayed when he was a student in Paris. Ahead of them, the long gray north wall and crow-studded tower of the Carmelite church came into view. Ready to be out of the wind, Charles and Dainville quickened their steps to the north door, the only one that opened outside the convent walls. After the dazzling autumn light, they stood for a moment, blinking in the dim nave... Then they went up the side aisle and to the left around the altar, where a small door stood open on steps plunging into near darkness. Charles went first, Dainville gripping his shoulder for safety. Even Charles had to keep a hand on each wall for balance, the stairs being worn and polished smooth from centuries of devout climbing up and down... The first flight of stairs was straight, but then they wound like the inside of a shell. As on his one previous visit to the crypt, Charles found himself fighting rising unease as the walls seemed to close behind them and the air grew dead and chill. He was almost glad to hear someone climbing toward them as they reached the stairs' final twist. 'Wait,' he called to the unseen climber. 'There's no room to pass. Can you go back down?' The steps halted abruptly and then retreated. When Charles and Dainville rounded the curve, a man was waiting at the bottom. Blackly silhouetted against the antechamber's only candle, which was mounted on the wall behind him,...he turned sideways, pressing himself against a closed door to the left of the stairs to let them pass...As they turned to the right and ducked under the low archway into the crypt chapel, his steps receded briskly above them. The crypt was a bare and stony place, long and narrow and swathed in shadows under its arched stone ceiling. By the light of the few candles burning in wall niches, Charles helped Dainville to the single prie-dieu snugged against the wall, halfway to the small main altar. When the old man was settled, Charles went farther forward and knelt on the stone floor... He didn't go as far into prayer as he sometimes did, and the deep, luminous Silence that sometimes visited him didn't come. Still, he rose from his knees with satisfaction enough...and turned to the prie-dieu. But Dainville wasn't there. Charles looked blankly around the empty crypt. 'Mon père?' His voice echoed unanswered. Surely the frail old man had not started up the stairs alone. Charles hurried down the crypt, pulled the heavy door open, and stumbled into near blackness instead of flickering candlelight."
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