Animal Wrongs

by Stephen Spotte

Overview

In a medieval French courtroom, animals are put on trial for "crimes" against mankind and must rely on preposterous legal diatribes by a court-appointed lawyer to defend them—great for fans of Umberto Eco, Edward Carey, and Amor Towles.

Historical fiction has never been more uproarious as master storyteller Stephen Spotte unleashes this wild tale of opposing attorneys battling to defend or prosecute accused animals—including a rat and a pig—facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake: Think Willard meets The Name of the Rose. Based on actual court records, Spotte captures the wit and bluster of the era, where courtrooms were packed with cheering and heckling spectators in ever-more opaque, convoluted, and dilatory trials. By the end of this novel, Spotte uses his critically-acclaimed storytelling skills to explore still-relevant theories on legal precedent, the church vs. the state, mankind’s place in nature, and animal rights. Hilarious insights into pride, greed, and some of the most bizarre court trials in the history of the world. "Spotte is a master storyteller,” says Library Journal and in ANIMAL WRONGS, this acclaimed author is at his peak.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953103093
Publisher:	Three Rooms Press
Publication date:	10/19/2021
Pages:	378
Sales rank:	1,096,519
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Stephen Spotte, a marine scientist born and raised in West Virginia, is the author of 23 books including seven works of fiction and two memoirs. Spotte has also published more than 80 papers on marine biology, ocean chemistry and engineering, and aquaculture. His field research has encompassed the Canadian Arctic, Bering Sea, West Indies, Indo-West Pacific, Central America, and the Amazon basin of Ecuador and Brazil. ANIMAL WRONGS is his fifth novel. He lives in Longboat Key, Florida.

Read an Excerpt

A few days ago a courier arrived with a letter from the bishop of Autun, my former place of residence until Madame Chassenée and I joined the landed gentry in the countryside. The words were clear enough, if a little strange: the bishop had appointed me as lawyer in an upcoming ecclesiastical proceeding to defend some rats accused of destroying much of last year’s barley crop, both in the local fields and at the municipal granary within the city walls. The proceeding will be conducted by the diocese and judged by a judicial vicar designated by the bishop. My adversary, if I chose to accept, would be the renowned prosecutor Humbert de Révigny. I had come up against Révigny twice before in more conventional civic trials and know him as a worthy opponent: brilliant, iconoclastic, erudite, and extraordinarily well prepared. I would need to be at the top of my game.

Business had been slow through the winter, and I wasn’t looking forward to an uptick in the writing of wills, representing clients in boundary disputes, handling land sales and title searches, and becoming involved in similar mundane tasks that fill an attorney’s hours. My experience until now had been relegated to secular law; here was a chance to participate in the canonical arena. The clients were certainly unusual, but then so was the opportunity. Plus, the opportunity provided a means of escaping Madame Chassenée for weeks or even months, a change no doubt beneficial to us both.

Editorial Reviews

A sprightly tale that finds two attorneys in medieval France matching wits over a triptych of unusual cases. . . . This medieval comedy smacks of Monty Python’s bawdy and mischievous sense of humor.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Dry, ironic, and filled with witty satire, the author has created a kind of mash-up between a Good Omens-style buddy comedy and a classic Monty Python’s Flying Circus skit.” —Seattle Book Review

"[An] amusing and clever book. It is the first book I have read by Spotte, but it will not be the last." —The Fish Shelf

"Those wacky ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages and beyond, what were they thinking, putting rats and pigs on trial for alleged crimes against humanity?… A fascinating read, by turns amusing and provocative." —Joe Amato, author, Samuel Taylor's Last Night

“Threaded with unique and sardonic humor, full and powerful, ANIMAL WRONGS is an off-beat exploration of human nature.” —Ed Ricciuti, author, Bears in the Backyard

High Praise for Previous Work by Stephen Spotte
"Spotte is a master storyteller.” —Library Journal

“A particularly inviting read that stands out from the crowd.” —Midwest Book Review

“Even somebody who doesn’t love historical fiction as much as I do could get on with it. . . Funny and approachable to read." —Reviews Feed

From the Publisher

2021-08-18
A sprightly tale that finds two attorneys in medieval France matching wits over a triptych of unusual cases.

And now for something completely different, as the saying goes. In fact, this medieval comedy smacks of Monty Python’s bawdy and mischievous sense of humor, even if it comes loaded with voluminous dialogues that take some getting used to. Our two protagonists over the course of a decade or so in the early 16th century are defense counsel and narrator Barthélemy de Chassenée and his prosecutorial counterpart, Humbert de Révigny, a flamboyant but enigmatic bon vivant who takes to sharing long conversations with his friend. Did we mention that Révigny is also a servant of Satan? Not in the form of a “devil’s advocate,” but a shape-shifting, red-eyed, horned demon who smells faintly of sulfur. The author’s really interesting choice here is that this fantastic revelation doesn’t bother Chassenée in the slightest. First, Chassenée is summoned to the village of Autun by the local bishop to defend...well, rats that are eating the crops, leading to bizarre but oddly entertaining legal gymnastics on both attorneys’ parts. Their cases are largely ecclesiastical tribunals, so there’s a lot of old-time religion added to each encounter. They meet again to wrestle over the fate of “Madame Truye,” a pig that ate up a baby like a dingo’s breakfast. Their third but unlikely last case directs their fey discourse to the case of Marcel Plonta, accused of being no less than a werewolf. Chassenée’s blithe acceptance of his frenemy’s demonic side takes some getting used to, but the verbal contests and quick-fire, Aaron Sorkin–like dialogue are more entertaining than any otherworldly conflict might have been. Not as ribald as a similarly drunken two-hander like Withnail and I, but a fun trifle nonetheless.

An atypical comic novel that deftly explores its cynical narrator’s encounters with his devilish friend.

Kirkus Reviews