The Invention of Fire: A Novel

ISBN: 0062356461

Author: Holsinger, Bruce

Condition: New

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 Englands most acclaimed intellectuals, John Gower is no stranger to Londons wretched slums and dark corners, and he knows how to trade on the secrets of the kingdoms most powerful men. When the bodies of sixteen unknown men are found in a privy, the Sheriff of London seeks Gowers help. The mens wounds-ragged holes created by an unknown object-are unlike anything the sheriffs 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. . .