"The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. His delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror. The body of one monk is found in a cask of pigs' blood, another is floating in a bathhouse, still another is crushed at the foot of a cliff. Brother William turns detective, and a uniquely deft one at that. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon - all sharpened to a glistening edge by his wry humor and ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night." As Brother William goes about unraveling the mystery of what happens at the abbey by day and by night, readers step into a brilliant re-creation of the fourteenth century, with its herbal smells and dazzling architectural sights, its dark superstitions and wild prejudices, its hidden passions and sordid intrigues... A gloriously rich blending of thriller and Gothic novel, intellectual fireworks and storytelling virtuosity"--