The Unburied
Reviewed by Gabrielle Mathieu, Fri., Dec. 10, 1999
The Unburied
by Charles PalliserFarrar, Straus, & Giroux, 400 pp., $24
The Unburied is about history, not horror, which is surprising since several intriguing murders -- from various time periods -- provide the scaffolding for Palliser's meticulously plotted historical mystery. (His first novel, The Quincunx, consisted of five parts, with five books to each part.) The main section of The Unburied, which takes place in Victorian England, is written in the Dickensian tone of the time. The narrator, Dr. Courtine, is a historian at Oxford who visits an estranged friend in the gloomy town of Thurchester, where the quiet pace of life conceals longstanding rivalries between academics and the cathedral. Like bishops and rooks in a game of chess, the Thurchester clerisy try to move into advantageous position for their sides. The masters of the board are hidden, leaving the reader to speculate, along with the narrator, about their identity, until the fictional editor's afterword. The Unburied is rewarding to those with the fortitude to reach its conclusions. Take advantage of the list of characters provided at the end of the book and be prepared for the maddening array of vergers, sacrists, and precentors.
