A Charles du Luc Novel Series

“Rich with telling detail and a deep feeling for time and place,”* Judith Rock¹s 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

In her historic mysteries The Rhetoric of Death and The Eloquence of Blood, Judith Rock created an atmosphere that "takes you back to fascinating and dangerous seventeenth-century Paris so well that I suspect her of being a time-traveler who’s been there" (Ariana Franklin, national bestselling author of A Murderous Procession). Now, the latest novel to feature Charles du Luc finds the ex-soldier-turned-Jesuit caught up in royal intrigue…

Versailles, 1687

Madame de Maintenon is King Louis XIV’s second wife. The daughter of a minor noble of ill-repute, she has not forgiven the king’s Jesuit confessor for encouraging him to withhold the title of Queen from her. To placate her, the prestigious Louis le Grand Jesuit school has sent a delegation—including her distant cousin Pere Jouvancy and rhetoric teacher Charles du Luc—to Versailles with a gift of reliquary.

But while the Sun King’s palace might be spectacular, this visit is anything but pleasant. Their first night, a courtier dies, and court whispers claim poison. Then the Jesuit delegation falls direly ill, and a palace gardener is found murdered. Fear grips a court already on edge. In the midst of all this, Charles learns that one of his students is in love with the king’s rebellious (and betrothed) daughter, and may ruin not only himself, but all of them …

"An exciting new discovery" (Library Journal) returns to seventeenth-century Paris with a new historical novel of intrigue. Christmas in Paris, 1686. The spirit of the season is shattered when Martine Mynette is murdered while trying to prove that she is the adopted daughter of the last surviving Mynette heir and thus claim her inheritance-money that the family otherwise intended to go to the Jesuit school, Louis le Grand.Now, with Jesuits being implicated in Martine’s death, rhetoric teacher Charles du Luc will not rest until he finds her murderer…

An “amazing”* debut historical novel (*Ariana Franklin, national betselling author of Grave Goods)

Paris, 1686: When The Bishop of Marseilles discovers that his young cousin Charles du Luc, former soldier and half-fledged Jesuit, has been helping heretics escape the king’s dragoons, the bishop sends him far away-to Paris, where Charles is assigned to assist in teaching rhetoric and directing dance at the prestigious college of Louis le Grand.

Charles quickly embraces his new life and responsibilities. But on his first day, the school’s star dancer disappears from rehearsal, and the next day another student is run down in the street. When the dancer’s body is found under the worst possible circumstances, Charles is determined to find the killer in spite of being ordered to leave the investigation.