The trip back had never seemed so long on that cold October
day in 1687! Having helped the old and fragile Père
Auguste Dainville, his best friend and father confessor,
to the crypt in the old Carmelite church, 29 year old
Maître Charles du Luc expects only to spend a quiet time in
prayer and then a safe return to the Jesuit school at Louis
le Grand. Instead, the old Jesuit priest makes the
shocking discovery of a murdered young man and is struck by
a paralyzing apoplexy. Will he survive this fateful event?
More than anything, Charles, a former soldier and French
aristocrat now a Jesuit scholar, wants to find out who did
this vile deed. Due to his quick intelligence and keen
observational skills, Charles has been successful in
helping to solve crimes in the past working with Lieutenant-
Général La Reynie, the head of the police in Paris. The
Head of his order at the school, Père Le Picart,
understands the situation, yet, is more worried about the
notoriety that Charles has been getting within the Society
of Jesus and wants him to focus instead on his scholarship
and his students.
Charles realizes that being a Jesuit is what he wants and
accepts the situation, but when other perilous situations
happens, Le Picart gives him a freer rein, but can he
solve this heinous murder with only the smallest of clues?
The old goatherder has warned him that if he followed the
dead, it would lead to deadly consequences. Is she a seer
or just a crazy woman? What meaning is she trying to give?
Judith Rock, author of THE WHISPERING OF BONES, instantly
pulls you back in time as you walk with Charles on the
small and narrow streets in 17th century Paris. With her
wide-ranging background and excellent research skills,
Rock vividly and authentically recreates the streets and
places that Charles roams as he seeks to fit the strange
and puzzling clues gathered from the life going on around
him. The plot is multi-layered and ranges from conspiracy
theories and libelous books designed to hurt The Society of
Jesus as well as other themes such as the nature of true
vocation, family obligations, painful misunderstandings and
a small touch of romance. Rock weaves these themes and
others in a powerful way that is both significant and very
relevant to the story in 1687 as well as to our lives today.
THE WHISPERING OF BONES is the fourth book in the Charles
De Luc series and reads equally well as a stand-alone
story, even as it deepens the understanding and
complexities that make Charles the man he is. Charles is a
wonderful and intelligent protagonist and fans, new and
existing, are sure to relish this latest adventure. I can
hardly wait for the next one! Enjoy!
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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