Rhetoric of Death

by Judith Rock

This mystery is set in the 1600's in France.  The story is about a Jesuit Monk, Charles du Luc who is from Southern France.  At this time there is a campaign on to convert the French Hugenot's to Catholicism.  Charles has some Hugenot relatives who do not wish to convert but would rather escape to Switzerland.  He aids them in leaving the country, or so he thinks.
His supervisors are aware of his sympathies to the Hugenot's and send him to Paris to be a Rhetoric Teacher at a Jesuit school.
The first day that Charles is in Paris he is helping students practice a play/ballet and the star dancer runs from the room.  Charles is instructed to follow him but he loses the boy in the crowded streets of Paris.
Soon after the younger brother of the escapee is knocked down in the street by an unknown horseman.  Charles is advised that it was an accident but he has his suspicions and starts to investigate even though advised by the head of the school to leave matters to the police.
He doesn't follow orders and discovers there is are discrepancies between what the young boy and witnesses have said and what a priest at the school, a relative of the boys, say.
While he is trying to get more information he finds that another witness has been murdered.  Then the tutor of the young boy eats chocolates sent to the boy and dies of poisoning.  The Leader of the school now instructs Charles to pursue the cases to try to get the truth.
It eventually is revealed that the boy's new young stepmother wants them out of the picture and that the child she is carrying is not her husband's.
The story was well written, there was a lot of detail about Paris at the time.  I enjoyed it.