The sorcerer and the assassin

Historian O'Shea (The Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt Against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars) makes his fiction debut with a superior whodunit set in 1242. The southern portion of France known as the Languedoc has become the base for Catharism, the religious sect deemed the Great Heresy by Pope Innocent III. Dominican inquisitors, who have been sent there to crack down on suspected heretics, are using torture to extract information, even from children. But their mission and the power of the papacy are threatened when someone begins to assassinate the inquisitors. The murders, in turn, could lead to a further crackdown and shake the stability of the realm. To avert that prospect and stop the killings, Blanche, the mother of King Louis IX, dispatches Balian of Mallorca--an alchemist, physician, and rumored sorcerer-- to investigate. Along with a motley group of allies, including a friar who's the queen mother's confessor, Balian tries to catch the murderer before more blood is shed. O'Shea's expertise about this period shines through on every page. Fans of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose won't want to miss this one. (Feb.)