The unburied

This is the second historical murder mystery I've read in as many weeks, the previous one being [b:Dissolution|138685|Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake, #1)|C.J. Sansom|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329914905s/138685.jpg|133702] by [a:C.J. Sansom|80212|C.J. Sansom|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1236778813p2/80212.jpg]. This one, however, is far more complex.

[b:Dissolution|138685|Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake, #1)|C.J. Sansom|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329914905s/138685.jpg|133702] is set in the sixteenth century and stays there, and though there are lots of deaths, they all take place in the 1530s. [b:The Unburied|661208|The Unburied|Charles Palliser|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347358827s/661208.jpg|1208482] is set in the nineteenth century, in the fictitious English cathedral city of Thurchester, but as the primary narrator, Dr Edward Courtine, is a historian, it harks back to several mysterious, or at least historically-disputed deaths in the past, in several different periods.

I enjoyed the book a lot, but perhaps that is because history is a topic that interests me a great deal. An interest in history, however, is not enough to make one enjoy historical novels, and in fact can impair enjoyment of them. A historian reading historical novels is always on the lookout for anachronisms (and yes, there are some in this book -- the use of the word "teenager", is but one example). But because the protagoinist is a historian, as are some of the other characters, perhaps one could call this a historigraphical novel, and that would make it of more interest to historians.

As I said, it is complex, and you have to keep your wits about you when reading it, to follow the motives not only of the characters, to see who had a motive for murdering whom, but also the motives of the historians who left their written accounts of the events, and the motives of the current characters in the story who interpret the documents and other evidence -- part of the evidence is in the fabric of Thurchester Cathedral itself.

The bulk of the book is taken up with Dr Courtine's visit to Thurchester, which lasts five days. He visits an old friend, from whom he has been estranged, and also visits the cathedral library in search of a manuscript that he believe's may throw light on the death of a ninth-century bishop, which may in turn illuminate the character of King Alfred. During his visit there is another murder, in which Dr Courtine is a witness, and uses his skills as a historian to try to work out what actually happened, but to some extent he is blinded by class prejudice, and so misses some important clues. So we have to read his account with a critical historian's eye, looking for unjustified assumptions and other historical errors.

It's a good and challenging read, especially if you like history.