The Invention of Fire audiobook

Disclosure up front: I took a Coursera class led by Prof. Bruce Holsinger two years ago.This is the second of Bruce Holsinger's books featuring poet John Gower as a detective. Like A Burnable Book, the first tale, this book is rich in historical detail and entertaining characters.There are a couple of subplots that eventually come together. The first plot begins when 16 dead bodies are found in London's "Long Drop" public privy by the night-soil removers. The second involves Stephen Marsh, a skilled metalworker who is indentured to the bell-maker for whom he was once an employee. The third involves Gower himself, who is losing his sight and wondering how he is going to make a living.The mystery concerning the bodies is complex and really does take the entire book to resolve. There are more twists and turns than can possibly be imagined; every time I thought I had it figured out, it turned out that I was wrong.Holsinger has taken his expertise in historic novels and applied it to great effect in his own work. He knows how much detail to include in order to set the stage without being pedantic, and how to create three-dimensional, believable characters to love or hate (no one is perfectly good or bad, just all perfectly human ... and some of them kinder than others).I would not hesitate to recommend this book to fans of historical fiction and/or historical mysteries.

It is the year 1386, and the bodies of 16 men have been found dumped in a public privy in the city of London, all of the corpses bearing strange wounds. John Gower, who makes his living trading secrets, is hired to discover not only the cause of death and the culprit responsible but who these men are. As he follows the evidence, he discovers that they were killed by a very recent invention – the handgonne.His investigation is stymied by some very powerful men including the Mayor of London as well as his failing eyesight and even his friend, Chaucer, warns him against continuing. But as the number of dead mounts and he is sent to Calais after villagers are murdered indiscriminately in the open marketplace by what appear to be English soldiers using handgonnes, Gower is determined to discover the truth but even he, a man who has spent his life dealing with the worst kinds of intrigue, is unprepared for what and who is behind it and how far they will go to achieve their intended ends.The handgun changed the course of war, a fact that author Bruce Holsinger uses brilliantly to construct one intriguing and well-written historical mystery in his novel The Invention of Fire. Full of interesting characters and even more interesting history, he brings to life the world of Medieval England in all its often unkempt glory and best of all, he makes it exciting. This is the second in the series featuring John Gower but the first I’ve read - I can say with certainty, however, that it won’t be my last.

John Gower, unsuccessful poet, blackmailer, and a reluctant investigator is not an easy man to like. A court official who knew London well and a good friend of Geoffrey Chaucer, he became closely associated with the nobility and even professed an acquaintance with King Richard II. His potential to be a fictional ‘trader of secrets’ in a city of shadows, fear and filth was compelling, and one seized upon with imagination, relish and consummate mastery by Bruce Holsinger, an award-winning scholar of the Middle Ages.Last year’s stunning debut, A Burnable Book, introduced us to Gower, part-time poet and full-time dealer in the clandestine, operating in a kingdom ruled by a headstrong teenage king and haunted by the double threat of a French invasion and growing unrest amongst the barons. That Gower was really losing his sight by this time – famously describing himself as ‘senex et cecus’ (old and blind) – only adds pathos to these exhilarating, intelligent thrillers which brim with atmosphere, authenticity, danger, and mystery. For a man who lives metaphorically at least by sifting dirt, this story has a fitting opening. Sixteen bodies are found in a London midden. No one knows the dead men, the way they were killed or who could be responsible – and the authorities, both the City and the Crown, seem reluctant to pursue the matter. At the same time, however, they seem desperate to recapture a man and woman who have escaped from jail in Kent, where Gower’s friend Chaucer is a magistrate. Only one thing is clear. Whoever threw the bodies into the sewer knew they would be found – and was powerful enough not to care.Soon we meet Stephen Marsh, the city’s most creative metalworker, who is recruited by the king’s armorer to come to the Tower and develop ever more lethal “handgonnes,” as the emerging weapons were called; they’re desperately needed to defend against the feared invasion. It becomes clear that handguns were used to kill the men, but the identity of the victims and their killers remains a mystery, despite Gower’s determined sleuthing.Hampered by his ‘creeping blindness’ and challenged by deception and treachery on all sides, Gower battles to unearth the truth in an inquiry that takes him from the city’s labyrinthine slums to the port of Calais and on to the forests of Kent. As Gower strives to discover the source of the new guns and the identity of those who wielded them, he must risk everything to reveal the truth and prevent a more devastating massacre on London’s crowded streets.London itself plays almost as much a part as do the characters. Real people like Chaucer, London Mayor Nicholas Brembre and various members of the aristocracy mix with fictional ones, to fill half a dozen different plots. Holsinger recreates the sights, sounds, and even the smells and combines them with a complex story of multiple murders, intrigue, pilgrimage, the law of sanctuary, religious hermits – and an amazingly accurate technical description of the development of a new weapon which was to change the face of war.This is history and mystery in perfect unison, a gripping whodunit set amidst the grinding, grimy reality of everyday life in medieval London and a charismatic, thinking man’s detective driving all the action.Historical fiction at its best.

First business, I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Now what matters .... I enjoyed this book. I did not read the first one but I don't believe that will reduce the impact and enjoyment of this book.Most of the characters I could get into but I felt there should have been something more regarding John's son and hopefully he will show up in future novels. I also felt that there could have been more closure on Margery and Robert, after all most of the story involving them was told from there perspective and there was no way that John could know some of their details so unless they show up in future novels we can only speculate as to their fates.

This second novel in the Gower series I loved (much more than the first)! And the primary reason was the imagining of the earliest days of a society learning about guns... I had never thought much about the experimentation, and *practice* that had to take place in arming our world with "handgonnes." The story was good, too -- I loved the flawed characters and again, the depiction of medieval London. A very smart, thoughtful, and yet fun read.

Holsinger really brought the world of the 14th century to life in this novel. Gower is a man of his times, a tradesman in secrets rather than metal or cloth. His character is one that would be able to navigate through a world of nobles and tyrants and come out alive, but with new enemies after every adventure. This is the first novel of his I have read, but it certainly won't be the last.