A murder is a murder, you would think. Murder stories have certain standard elements - a body, a murderer, a motive, a search for justice - that ought to make standard stories, and often do.

The Inquisitor is certainly not such standard cops’n’robbers fare. Catherine Jinks has created a challenging, demanding story which takes its intended adult or teenage reader into a dark and thought-provoking world. As the threads of the mystery gradually unravel, we face, as the characters do, questions of law and justice, good and evil, choice and inevitability. But we are also asked by the narrator consider the difference between truth and understanding, both through his eyes and through our own.

Like The Name of the Rose and the Brother Cadfael mysteries, The Inquisitor is set in medieval Europe against a backdrop of the turbulent church and state politics of the time. Catherine Jinks made good use of her knowledge of this era in her acclaimed Pagan series. In The Inquisitor she once again places believable characters in an accurate, detailed setting, this time the office of the Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity in Lazet in the south of France in 1318.

The narrator, Brother Bernard Peyre, the assistant Inquisitor, must investigate the brutal slaying of his superior and several guards. However, the “whodunnit” element of the storyline is not as central to the story as the difficulties Bernard must face in his personal and religious convictions.

Was this a religiously motivated crime by the Cathar sect the Inquisitors were pursuing? Was it a personal vendetta by local notables under suspicion? Was it divine action, or even satanic? Brother Bernard must sift through all the possibilities, calling so many of the certainties of his religious vocation into question as he gets closer to the truth.

Catherine Jinks has created an outstanding study of conscience in The Inquisitor because Bernard’s conscience is not a twentieth century one like ours. He works from the beliefs and doubts of a 14th century cleric, often quoting from the Bible and St Augustine to explain or justify his choices. The reader must resist the impulse to jump to a modern conclusion because these are not modern characters in a modern situation.

The conclusion, and Bernard’s choices and actions, are appropriate for the medieval world of the story. Catherine Jinks’ challenge to the reader is to understand them accordingly.

The Inquisitor is a gripping and thoughtful story, as much a study of character as a story of a crime. It asks the reader to think about things differently and consider, with Bernard, what Truth might be and whether it is the Truth we want.

Other titles by this author:
The Pagan chronicles (Hodder, 1999)
Pagan's Crusade, Pagan in Exile, Pagan's Vows, Pagan's Scribe
Eglantine, Eustace, Eloise: 3 Ghost Stories (Allen & Unwin, 2000-03)

Review by David Beagley

© 2000 David Beagley