Author(s): Catherine Jinks

Fiction

Beautifully crafted historical fiction set in medieval France, The Secret Familiar is a page-turning murder mystery and a fascinating moral tale of betrayal, faith and ultimate truth.

He is my master, and a great man. Yet I would have preferred to escape his notice. 'Hide yourself,' he told me, and I obeyed - perhaps too well. No inquisitor likes to be outwitted.

I just want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask, after so many years of faithful service?

Helie is a former spy of the famous fourteenth-century inquisitor Bernard Gui. Now he is living under an alias, trying to forget his past life of deception and intrigue. But a chance meeting once more brings him to the notice of the Inquisition; he is obliged to infiltrate a new heretical group, and find out what happened to the last spy sent to do so. Was he murdered or did he flee?

Helie soon finds himself caught up in a dangerous conspiracy involving outlawed beliefs and human remains. The trouble is he no longer has the stomach for such an investigation - because his heart is beginning to betray him.

Set in a period when France was rocked by religious strife, The Secret Familiar is a tense and thrilling tale of treachery, faith and ultimate truths. First published 2006.