The Rhetoric of Death — Judith Rock

The Bishop of Marseilles has discovered his horror that his young cousin Charles du Luc, former soldier and half-fledged Jesuit, has been helping heretics (that is, Protestants) escape the king's dragoons. But rather than drag his reckless cousin to the galleys, the bishop settles for sending him far away -- to Paris, where Charles is assigned to assist in teaching rhetoric and directing dance at the prestigious college of Louis le Grand.

Charles quickly embraces his new life and responsibilities. But when the school's star dancer disappears from rehearsal, and the next day another student is run down in the street, Charles wonders whether some enemy is targeting the college and its students. And when the dancer's body is found, under the worst possible circumstances, Charles is determined to find the killer despite being ordered away from the investigation. He soon finds himself trying to save not only his vocation, but his life.

From the teeming, narrow streets of seventeenth-century Paris, to the candlelit salons and the secrets and plots of courtiers and spies, to the infamous beggars' Louvre and into the deadly coils of religious and political intrigue, The Rhetoric of Death is a sumptuous and suspenseful tour de force of history, culture, and mystery.