S.J. Parris Books In Order

Giordano Bruno Books In Publication Order

Heresy (2010)
Prophecy (2011)
Sacrilege (2012)
The Secret Dead (2013)
Treachery (2014)
Conspiracy (2016)
Execution (2020)
The Dead of Winter: Three Giordano Bruno Novellas (2020)

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S.J. Parris Books Overview

Heresy

Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth century Oxford University campus. Giordano Bruno was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of Heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic. In S. J. Parris’s gripping novel, Bruno’s pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen. His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and Heresy. Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers. From the Hardcover edition.

Prophecy

S. J. Parris returns with the next Giordano Bruno mystery, set inside Queen Elizabeth’s palace and steeped in period atmospherics and the strange workings of the occult. It is the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align an astrologi cal phenomenon that occurs once every thousand years and heralds the death of one age and the dawn of another. The streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth. When several of the queen s maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that some thing far more sinister is at work. But even as the climate of fear at the palace intensifies, the queen refuses to believe that the killer could be someone within her own court. Bruno must play a dangerous game: can he allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs without putting her, England, or his own life in danger? In this utterly gripping and gorgeously written novel, S. J. Parris has proven herself the new master of the historical thriller.

Sacrilege

A gripping historical thriller set in sixteenth century England and centered on the highly secretive cult of Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. London, summer of 1584: Radical philosopher, ex monk, and spy Giordano Bruno suspects he is being followed by an old enemy. He is shocked to discover that his pursuer is in fact Sophia Underhill, a young woman with whom he was once in love. When Bruno learns that Sophia has been accused of murdering her husband, a prominent magistrate in Canterbury, he agrees to do anything he can to help clear her name. In the city that was once England’s greatest center of pilgrimage, Bruno begins to uncover unsuspected secrets that point to the dead man being part of a larger and more dangerous plot in the making. He must turn his detective’s eye on history on Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and on the legend surrounding the disappearance of his body in order to solve the crime. As Bruno’s feelings for Sophia grow more intense, so does his fear that another murder is about to take place perhaps his own. But more than Bruno’s life is at stake in this vividly rendered, impeccably researched, and addictively page turning whodunit the stability of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Bruno hunts down a brutal murderer in the shadows of England’s most ancient cathedral.