The Whispering of Bones
by Judith Rock

“Rich with telling detail and a deep feeling for time and place,”* Judith Rock’s historical mysteries are “a great mix of mystery, excitement and intrigue...a truly excellent series.”**

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...

READERS GUIDE INSIDE

*Margaret Frazer, national bestselling author of The Apostate’s Tale
****The Big Thrill

Other Books by Judith Rock

A Plague of Lies
A Charles du Luc Novel #3

The Eloquence of Blood
A Charles du Luc Novel #2

The Rhetoric of Death
A Charles du Luc Novel #1

Judith Rock's Bio

“AN ARTIST IS ONE ON WHOM NOTHING IS WASTED...”

Years go, I came across these words, though I don't remember whose they are. But I know how true they are.

Before I was a novelist, I was a dancer and choreographer; actress and playwright; professor and police officer; lecturer and researcher. Each of those passions and adventures has deepened and expanded my writing.

The Rhetoric of Death (which will be released by Berkley/Penguin on Oct. 5, 2010) is a historical novel with a dark mystery at its heart. It grew out of my 17th century dance research in Paris and is set in the Paris Jesuit college in 1686. Besides taking you into the lavish dance and drama the Jesuits produced on their college stage, the novel also takes you into the treacherous world of religious and political intrigue in Louis the XIV’s France.

You can read up on the history behind the novel in Terpsichore at Louis le Grand (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996). I think you’ll be surprised at what real Jesuits were doing back then, especially with dance!