Marina Benedetti's new work focuses on significant figures of the Lombard inquisition from the 1230s to the early part of the 1300s. This book is in many ways a summation and compilation of the author's previous detailed and comprehensive efforts in this area. Drawing primarily on the account books of the inquisition, the libri dei conti (which she accurately calls ‘quantitatively rich and qualitatively fertile’: p. 99), Benedetti offers a fascinating view into the inner workings of a rapidly developing institution throughout the period in question. Proceeding in a generally chronological framework, she follows four Dominican inquisitors, Peter of Verona, Raniero Sacconi, Lanfranco of Bergamo and Nicholas Boccassio (later Pope Benedict xi). Her analyses of the latter two are by far the best in the book, and she especially excels at injecting life into dry accounting entries. Benedetti's command of the archival material is excellent, and her work really shines in the evocation of the day-to-day operations of the inquisition, especially her fascinating work on Lanfranco and her analysis of the followers of Guglielma of Milan, a topic on which she has previously written. Her analysis of the office from a fiscal point of view well illustrates her contention that the inquisitor had to be a good politician and a careful administrator. He was also someone concerned with the condition of horses, the benefactor who funded pitancia for his brothers, and even a paternal figure who gave money for the birthday celebrations of his associated familia. The book's narrative arc is sometimes difficult to follow. It reads like a series of disparate essays, and there is some repetition throughout as Benedetti follows different angles. Another problem is an absorption with the orthography of names, sometimes with pages being taken up with small details probably better placed in footnotes. There is little organic connection between sections and not much of an attempt to draw broader conclusions. The end of the book approaches with a multitude of direction and topic changes, moving back and forth chronologically and geographically, yet without producing a satisfying conclusion. It would also have been helpful had there been more of an attempt to connect the very interesting findings to other sources, be they theological, hagiographical, or chronicle. Her distrust of some of these sources is palpable. In the end her concentration on accounting sources and her predilection for a solely political interpretation of inquisition impairs the development of a larger view, and precludes even the consideration of the idea that the inquisition may have been seen as a holy, noble and even popular enterprise, both inside and outside the mendicant orders. That the account books do not deal with theological questions reinforces her insistence on a solely political reading. In the end this is a valuable work for its close textual analysis and its dexterity with sources. This makes the one glaring instance of inaccuracy rather surprising, especially as it goes on for several pages, and is used to draw conclusions. She suggests that Innocent iv issued Ad extirpanda on 15 May 1243 (p. 185), a difficult feat considering that he was not elected for another month. Ad extirpanda was first released on 15 May 1252 in response to the death of Peter of Verona.