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An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

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A murder in 17th-century Oxford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford) is related from the contradictory points of view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_view_%28literature%29) of four of the characters, all of them unreliable narrators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator). The setting of the novel is 1663, just after the restoration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Restoration) of the monarchy following the English Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War), when the authority of King Charles II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England) is not yet settled, and conspiracies abound.

Most of the characters are historical figures. Two of the narrators are the mathematician John Wallis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wallis) and the historian Anthony Wood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Wood). Other characters include the philosopher John Locke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke), the scientists Robert Boyle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle) and Richard Lower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lower_%28physician%29), spymaster John Thurloe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thurloe), and inventor Samuel Morland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morland). The plot is at first centred on the death of Robert Grove (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Grove_%28academic%29&action=edit&redlink=1)[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Instance_of_the_Fingerpost#cite_note-0) but later takes in the conspiracies of John Mordaunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mordaunt,_1st_Viscount_Mordaunt) and William Compton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Compton_%28army_officer%29) (of Compton Wynyates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Wynyates)), and the politics of Henry Bennet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bennet) and Lord Clarendon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hyde,_1st_Earl_of_Clarendon). Furthermore, the characters that are fictional are nonetheless drawn from real events. The story of Sarah Blundy incorporates that of Anne Greene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Greene)[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Instance_of_the_Fingerpost#cite_note-1), while Jack Prestcott is involved in events based on the life of Richard Willis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Willis_%28spy%29) (of the Sealed Knot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealed_Knot)).

The book is an epistolary novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_novel). The accounts are written many years after the events they describe, after Thomas Ken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ken) gained his Bishopric but before the death of Henry Bennet. This dates them to 1685, the last year of Charles' reign.

A contrast portrayed in the novel is, on one hand, a philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy) based on ancient and medieval (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_philosophy) learning, and, on the other, the scientific method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method) that was beginning to be applied in physics, chemistry and medicine.