Inquisitions

Author: David Gibbins Publisher: Headline Publishing ISBN: 9781472230218

IS the year 258AD and Emperor Valerian has turned on Rome’s Christians, slaughtering them and their pope to satiate the masses.

A Christian legionary runs into the fire-drenched catacombs beneath the city to retrieve his faith’s most sacred object, the Holy Grail.

In 1684, the famous diarist Samuel Pepys is in Tangier to oversee the handing over of Charles II’s defeated colony to the Moors. A mysterious object concealed within an ancient leather saddlebag becomes part of the negotiations.

Pepys hopes to send it to safety in the Caribbean, far from the attention of kings and emperors, but a dangerous obstacle stands in the way – the Altamanus, a merciless element within the Inquisition.

Then the story kicks in to the present day where marine archaeologist and explorer Jack Howard is diving off the Cornish coast on the wreck of a ship that he is able to identify as one of those that Pepys despatched from Tangier.

It sends Jack and his diving partner Costas, as well as his daughter Rebecca, on a trail of clues that eventually lead them across the stormy ocean. But every step they take, they encounter challenges.

Inquisition is Gibbins’ new and 10th Jack Howard series. A marine archaeologist himself, the book shows Gibbins’ meticulous attention to details. He tells a great story and at its heart is the Inquisition, particularly in 17thcentury Portugal.

While most of the novel takes place during the present day, there is a significant chunk that takes us back to Tangier and to Portugal.

We witness the tension of the British evacuation of Tangier through Pepys – most definitely a man with one eye on his posterity and the other on alcohol and women.

Also the section set in Portugal during the Inquisition is far darker and deeply disturbing.

This is an interesting read for fans of marine archaeology. – M.L.M.