This is a deceptively simple narrative, told in the first person (via the 'diary' which constitutes the main text of the book) kept for 'safety' reasons by a secret familiar (a special counterespionage spy) for Bernardo Gui, the Inquisitor-General of the Roman Catholic Inquisition. The period is early 1321 CE in France. The heretics the spy is checking on are the Beguins.

The writing is spare and precise, much as one would expect from a Spy. We learn what such a spy does, and how he does it, how his experiences have taught him what to do, what to look for, how to interpret certain signs, actions, words. The world he spies on is historically accurate (a similar quality that is found in Jink's other historical works such as the excellent 'The Inquisitor' and 'The Notary' — both well worth seeking out). The reader is made privy to the thoughts and feelings of our special spy, and provides a kind of primer into the attitudes of the Church towards those it considered its potential enemies. On that level, the novel is educational as well.

What is particularly clever is the way the first-person narrative gradually ensnares the reader into the secretive world of espionage. Much of the tension and suspense come from this, and the novel is certainly a page-turner, as one wonders exactly what could happen. Where the work is subversive lies in the fact that subconsciously, as events accumulate, we begin to be able to see just how destructive and paranoid the world of the spy becomes, a world that includes good people as well as bad, and that those who might be thought to be good may not necessarily be all that good after all. It does not take long before paranoia takes over, then desperate actions aimed at survival. The spy starts his inquiries in search of the evil and depraved heretics; the reader is the one who is left wondering who or what is the real evil here, and where true depravity lies.2 s Carlos Magdaleno Herrero230 46

Un libro entretenido que engancha, nos adentra en esa oscura época en que la Iglesia Católica asaba a diestro y siniestro a la gente que no comulgaba con sus ruedas de molino; en este caso son los beguinos, que simplemente morían quemados por creer en la pobreza de la iglesia.

Afortunadamente ya no tienen tanto poder en esto que ahora llamamos democracia.1 Teresa68 11

A very nice study on human nature and faith in the dangerous times of Inquisition. The most curiou thing is that the author wrote this based on a real Inquisitorial process.20th-21st-century books-owned crime-action-adventure ...more1 Alex M. S.5

"Esta novela es como intentar resolver un acertijo complicado que resulta ser una broma pesada.
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