Brother Nothing: A Novel [9781250893864]

Overview

A thrilling medieval murder mystery set in the shadow of the plague, from the award-winning author of Glorious Exploits, for fans of True Detective and The Name of the Rose

In late fourteenth-century France, corpses are a familiar sight. The Black Death has devastated the country, and now an English army is burning and pillaging its way across the north, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. But when Anna de Mollier, one of the wealthiest women in a small town, is found dead, eerily strung up in the dyers’ quarter dressed as an angel, it suggests more subtle and sinister forces are at work.

Newly arrived from Paris and tasked with investigating the shocking crime is Philippe, a provost, or dispenser of the king’s justice. He’s accompanied by his precocious young daughter, Nicole—and by memories of this town, which he grew up in and fled as soon as he came of age. As he begins to investigate, Philippe discovers a frightened, secretive populace desperate for someone to blame. The only suspect is a touring performer of miracle plays imprisoned in the keep, around whom dark rumours of the supernatural are already swirling.

Upon meeting the imprisoned man, Philippe is confronted with a strange and unsettlingly sympathetic character who insists that he is innocent, but only of this particular crime, and wishes to make a full confession.

As the prisoner’s story travels from a monastery to a plague ship and across the sea to England, Philippe investigates the town’s corrupt, decaying feudal system, and the two narratives begin to intertwine. With the English army at the door and a potential conspiracy on his hands, Philippe must unravel the prisoner’s mysteries in order to deliver justice and protect his daughter.

A Gothic detective story, Brother Nothing is another brilliantly contemporary tale of the past, from a “remarkable” writer whose work “does not remain safely historical” (The New York Review of Books).