American novelist Judith Rock has been a busy person. Before commencing her Charles du Luc series set in seventeenth-century France, she was variously a dancer, choreographer, actress, playwright, professor, police officer, lecturer, and researcher. “Each of those passions and adventures has deepened and expanded my writing.” she has noted.
The first Charles du Lac installment, The Rhetoric of Death, appeared in 2010. With rehearsals for a ballet in full swing, a killer is on the loose at the Jesuit college on the rue St. Jacques, and it is up to Charles to stop the killings. “Rock’s superb historical debut opens with 28-year-old Charles du Luc arriving in 1686 Paris to serve as a teacher in a Jesuit school…With an experienced writer’s ease, Rock incorporates details of the political issues of the day into a suspenseful story line,” declared Publishers Weekly in a starred review. Booklist offered a further starred review of this debut, noting that “Rock’s novel boasts a style all its own and is sure to satisfy those eager for a great new historical mystery.” (more…)
Scene of the Crime 