Pan MacMillan, 1999 – out of
print in Australia

Available from
Amazon US
iTunes - Attach link

When his superior’s dismembered corpse is discovered, fourteenth-century Inquisitor of Heretical Depravity, Bernard Peyre, attempts to investigate the crime. But he himself soon becomes an object of persecution – thanks to his involvement with a mysterious suspect and her beautiful daughter.

This title is still available in the United States (St. Martin’s Minotaur), Germany (Rowohlt), Spain (Roca Editorial), Portugal (Bertrand Editorial), Poland (Tyrs) and Brazil (Marco Polo).

‘Jinks does an admirable job of depicting the lives of 14th-century monks and the world they inhabited . . . The Inquisitor is a strong tale well told . . .’
The San Francisco Chronicle

 ‘Jinks spins a feasible and fun story of a rational man in an irrational time, with a little unsolved sexual tension thrown in for good measure. Those rascally monks. The murder mystery is convincingly clever.’
The Age

 ‘This is pacy, witty historical detective fiction, far more entertaining that The Name of the Rose . . . [Jinks] deserves cult status.’
Vogue

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‘The most engaging Australian novel I have picked up this year . . . Jinks effectively creates a quite believable historical world which does not impede the wham-bam action and at the same time manages not to insult the intelligence . . . This book is a page-turner.’
The Sydney Morning Herald

 ‘A fast-moving and entertaining look at medieval France under strict church rule . . .’
Publishers Weekly

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  • Elo Arkomen

    My name is Elorri, I’m a musicology student from the Basque Country and now I attend a master in history and heritage. I just wanted to thank you for your amazing books, particularly for The Inquisitor. I recognize that when I bought it I didn’t know what it was about, I got it because I’m passionate about medieval period. But I should say that it really touched me deeply, especially when my road on history is beginning and your book has motivated me. You have a follower on me, please keep on writing.
    Elorri.

    • Catherine Jinks

      Wow, Elorri! The Basque Country! That’s DEFINITELY a first for me! Thanks so much for your message! I really appreciate it.

      By the way, ‘The Inquisitor’ has two kind-of sequels, one of which was only published in Australia. The first is called ‘The Notary’ (in English) and the second is called ‘The Secret Familiar’. They all deal with medieval heresy, and there’s a thread of connection, but the characters are different. I think they’re out of print now, but you could probably get them on Amazon.

  • Jose

    Hi! My name is José, I´m from México. I love your novels, well, at least the ones that are available here (not to many!). I got caught by your way of writting in “The Inquisitor”… excellent narrative!
    I recently found another of your novels in a used books market in Mexico City, and its called “El secreto del Inquisidor” (The secret of the inquisitor). I couldn’t find it by that name anywhere on the internet! but now I see that the original name is “The secret familiar” and also by Reading your entry, now I know that there’s another medieval novel of yours!! I’ll make sure i buy it on amazon.
    Thank you very much and keep up that great job!

  • Catherine Jinks

    Thanks you so much, Jose! Mexico! That’s exciting. I’ve never been to Mexico.
    I’ve actually written three ‘Inquisition’ novels – all of which have been much, much more popular in Europe and parts of South America (and Mexico!) than they were in Australia. The first was ‘The Inquisitor,’ the second was ‘The Notary’ and the third was ‘The Secret Familiar’. While the first is about the Cathars, the third is about the Beguins. Different heretics, you see – and different inquisitors, too. Unfortunately, I can’t remember if ‘The Notary’ ever made it down your way – or what it was called if it did. They were all published a long time ago, and I have a shocking memory. But it’s so, so nice to hear that someone, somewhere, is still enjoying them. I’m really grateful that you told me!.

  • Kaitlyn

    Hi Catherine,

    I hope you see this because I think you'll find it interesting! (and I have a bit of a dilemma)

    I was perusing a second-hand bookstore and came across this interesting looking book by you. What caught my attention was how plain the cover was so I picked it up and gave the blurb a read. Historical fiction is my absolute favourite so I bought it immediately. Now, I did notice the section on the back that said 'IMPORTANT:' but I just assumed it was a warning about 'adult content' (like other books have) so I didn't read that part.

    I had to wait a few days to read it as I was on a trip with some friends but when I finally got home and took another look at the back cover, I noticed that the important message on the back was actually a note that this was an ARC!!! I knew this was special as I'm not someone who receives ARCs so I went to Google to see what information I could find but there isn't much about the book in general, and there isn't anything specifically about/around the time of release. My love of historical fiction obviously comes from my love of history so when I find a mystery like this I always look for all kinds of information about it. Knowing this, its safe to say I'm going crazy not being able to find any information about this book!!

    To sum this up, I found this copy in a second-hand bookstore in Melbourne earlier this year and brought it back to Sydney with me. I wasn't alive when this was released (I was born 2003) so I really want to know more about the history of this ARC, like how were they distributed at the time, who would have gotten them, and how many are there in the world? Are there any interesting tidbits of information that you have about publishing this book? If you have any knowledge that you are willing to share, that would be incredible! Even so, I think you will be interested to know that this copy is still floating around and has landed in the hands of someone new after 35 years! I promise to take care of it!

    If you do see this, thank you for writing this novel!

    PS: The book is amazing!! I know I haven't said much about it in this comment but I trully loved everything about it. Its not usually a time period I see written about (at least in the books I read) so it was wonderfull to experience something like this! I will be trying to find your other books now!!

    I have also attached some photos of the copy I bought!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3013cbf1f6181fb7b637083cf9b2f281695b3cfcc2004dc895ba105d416527c1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30e36e22a59de3eba48b11289df34dd912689c6bc8f701d8531d9db86b3ec591.jpg

    • Catherine Jinks

      Wow, Kaitlyn! That IS amazing – an ARC turning up after all this time! Back in the day, ARCs tended to be sent out to newspaper and magazine reviewers, possibly to bookshop owners – I don't think there were many (or even any) prominent bloggers or vloggers in those days. I don't know much about the process, because it was never my department – the publishers took care of it all.

      As far as the book goes, I wrote it because I studied the medieval inquisition when I was doing history at university. There are two other books in the 'series', though they're each a stand-alone: 'The Notary' (which is about a notary who becomes sucked into an inquisitorial murder inquiry) and 'The Secret Familiar' (which is about an inquisitor's familiar looking into the Beguin heretics). The 'Secret Familiar' is a better book. None of these books received much attention in Australia, but the Europeans liked them a lot – especially in Spain, Portugal and Germany. Even Brazil published 'The Inquisitor'. I'm not sure why it appealed to them so much – perhaps because of Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'? (If you haven't read that, by the way, you should do it RIGHT NOW!)

      I'm so glad that you messaged me. It's lovely to hear from someone so young who (a) reads books and (b) loves history. You remind me of me. Also, it's nice to know that someone still appreciates what is effectively a dead book. I have a YouTube channel called 'Storybook Cottage Writer' and I'm thinking about doing an episode on my forgotten books – one of which would have been 'The Inquisitor'. But maybe it hasn't been completely forgotten after all!

      • Kaitlyn

        Thank you so much for replying and sharing this info!

        Its so interesting how book reviews circulated before the internet was as big as it is now! I don't know why but I find it facinating how people existed, how vastly different their lives were, and how things worked before technology was so widespread and advanced. My family have always told me I have an old soul, maybe thats where my love of history comes from.

        Another thanks for the recomendations, all 3 books have been added to the top of my evergrowing reading list. I'm very excited to dive into more medieval novels! I'm always looking for hidden (or in your words forgotten) gems, which this definitely is to me. Also I think that is an incredible video idea, especially coming from your point of view as the author of these novels. I'm excited to watch your videos too, heading to subscribe now!

        Thanks again for your reply, it really means a lot!