Sacrilege

Starred review from February 13, 2012
Set in 1584 England, this terrific third novel featuring Italian philosopher and intelligence agent Giordano Bruno (after 2011’s Prophecy) reinforces Parris’s position at the top of the Elizabethan historical pack. Rumors that a recently docked ship in the Thames carries the plague have thrown London into a panic, but Bruno has a murder case to deal with. Sophia Underhill, a former love interest of Bruno’s, has fled Canterbury, where her brutish husband, Sir Edward Kingsley, was bludgeoned to death in a manner curiously reminiscent of Thomas Becket’s killing. Since Sophia stood to gain financially from her husband’s demise and bloodstained women’s gloves were found near Kingsley’s body, she fears she’ll be burned for the crime. When Bruno gives in to her entreaties to clear her name, Bruno’s English spymaster, the real-life Sir Francis Walsingham, reluctantly allows his valued operative to journey to Canterbury. Parris creates some genuine chills in scenes set in spooky crypts, and masterfully mixes political intrigue, action, and sleuthing. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM.

March 1, 2012
Giordano Bruno, the excommunicated monk attached to both the French embassy and the spy network of Sir Francis Walsingham, is lured to Canterbury by still another troubled attachment. In 1584, Bruno thinks he's put Sophia Underhill, whom he loved in vain in Heresy (2010, etc.), behind him. And so he has, but only in the sense that she's dogging his steps in London disguised as a boy. When he recognizes her, she appeals once more for his help. Sir Edward Kingsley, the much older magistrate to whom her aunt married her off after an illegitimate child exiled her from the life she'd known, has been brained with a crucifix in Canterbury Cathedral under conditions that echo the martyrdom of Thomas Becket and make Sophia the obvious suspect. Only Bruno, she insists, can vindicate her by unmasking her hated husband's killer. Under protest, Bruno persuades Walsingham to dispatch him to Canterbury, ostensibly to report back on the doings of Dr. Harry Robinson, the spymaster's man inside the Cathedral Chapter, but secretly accompanied by Sophia, still disguised as Kit. He soon identifies several other promising suspects: Sir Edward's wastrel son Nicholas; physician/alchemist Dr. Ezekiel Sykes; and cathedral gatekeeper Tom Garth, whose sister Sarah died in the Kingsley home nine years ago under mysterious circumstances. In the meantime, however, Bruno stumbles into much deeper waters, from the disappearances of a number of young boys to a plot to revive the Becket cult, dormant ever since the disappearance of the saint's bones, to a conspiracy involving the alchemical theories of Paracelsus and Hermes Trismegistus. Instead of flying below the radar, as Walsingham bade him, Bruno finds himself swiftly making influential enemies as well. Densely textured but slow-moving, with a mystery whose tangled mess of multiple plots and plotters is only partly resolved by Bruno's trial for murder, attempted murder and larceny.

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March 1, 2012
Giordano Bruno returns (following Prophecy, 2011) for the third in Parris' series starring the sixteenth-century former monk. During a scorching summer, with the threat of plague hanging heavy over London, an irresistible woman from Bruno's past reappears. On the lam for the murder of her husband, Bruno's past lover, Sophia Underhill, begs Bruno to help clear her name. Unable to say no, he travels to Canterbury with her to help unravel the mystery of the murder. Things are not as they seem in quiet Canterbury, and Bruno finds himself mired in multiple killings and on the trail of a conspiracy to undermine the crown. Bruno's ability to ingratiate himself with others serves him well in a town deeply suspicious of outsiders. But as the bodies begin to pile up, suspicion inevitably turns to Bruno. Only his keen intellect and the help of a few loyal friends stand between him and the gallows. Parris' vivid imagery and finely drawn characters combine for a rich portrayal of daily life in Elizabethan England. The novel's fast pace and numerous twists keep readers hooked until the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)