Treachery (Giordano Bruno Series #4)

by S. J. Parris

Overview

The new historical thriller featuring Giordano Bruno, heretic, philosopher, and spy, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and The Name of the Rose.

August, 1585. A relentless enemy. A treacherous conspiracy. Elizabethan England is on the brink of war.

Sir Francis Drake is preparing to launch a daring expedition against the Spanish when a murder aboard his ship changes everything.

Giordano Bruno agrees to hunt the killer down, only to find that more than one deadly plot is brewing in Plymouth’s murky underworld. And as he tracks a murderer through its dangerous streets, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the future of England itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643132242
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	12/03/2019
Series:	Giordano Bruno Thriller Series , #4
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	262,716
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

S. J. Parris is the pseudonym of Stephanie Merritt. Since graduating from Cambridge, she has worked as a critic for a variety of newspapers and magazines as well as for radio and television. She currently writes for the Guardian in London and is the author of five novels in the Giordano Bruno mystery series. Visit S.J. Parris at www.sjparris.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/21/2019

Parris’s excellent fourth Elizabethan whodunit featuring philosopher spy Giordano Bruno (after 2012’s Sacrilege) finds Sir Francis Drake preparing to lead a large fleet against Spain. While the official story is that Drake intends to sail along the Spanish coast to rescue English ships being held in that country’s ports, he’s actually planning an all-out assault on Spain’s New World holdings. But Drake’s departure from Plymouth is delayed after crew member Robert Dunne, an officer who circumnavigated the globe with Drake seven years earlier, is found hanged in his locked room aboard Drake’s flagship, an apparent suicide. Seeing evidence that Dunne was murdered, Drake is wary of embarking with a killer on board. By chance, Bruno’s friend, Sir Philip Sidney, was scheming to join the Drake fleet, and after learning of the problem, volunteers Bruno, who has successfully solved murders before, to investigate. Bruno soon gets on the track of a monstrous plot against the kingdom. This is historical mystery fiction at its finest. Agent: Deborah Schneider, ICM. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"With its twisting plot and vivid scene-setting, Treachery confirms Parris’s growing reputation as a writer of historical thrillers."

The Sunday Times (London)

Vivid characterizations, careful description, and lively dialogue.

Historical Novels Review

"Parris’s Giordano Bruno series has been a joy. Her Elizabethan England is loud, pungent, and blessedly free of some of the genre’s more egregious clichés. She wears her research lightly: at home with the detail of the period, she is quite happy to engage in a little creative anachronism to bring the story home."

The Daily Telegraph (UK)

"There are echoes of C. J. Sansom’s here. Her prose is taut and compelling. Her wielding of the historical material is always convincing but never overwhelming."

The Times (London)

"Hugely enjoyable. It’s played straight, but never humourlessly so, and there’s just enough 'proper' history amid the intrigue to keep purists on side."

The Guardian

"An evil bookseller and a terrifying brothel lie ahead; what’s not to like? Gripping and fun."

The Observer (London)

One of my favorite authors—and unquestionably our greatest living writer of historical thrillers. Few novelists inhabit a setting—any setting—with such confidence and command; fewer still devise plots of such cunning and craft. If Hilary Mantel, John Le Carré, and Michael Connelly were to join forces, they might gift us with a novel as atmospheric, intelligent, and addictive as Treachery—or indeed any of Parris’ books featuring monk-turned-spy Giordano Bruno.

A. J. Finn

Fans of Umberto Eco or C.J. Sansom will love Treachery, the fourth entry in the Giordano Bruno series by S.J. Parris. Meticulously researched and well-written, Treachery is a fascinating historical mystery, sure to appeal to both historical fiction and mystery readers.

Shelf Awareness

A masterful work that deserves a place on all public-library historical-fiction shelves, and that should be recommended to Phillipa Gregory fans.

Booklist (starred)

A masterful work that deserves a place on all public-library historical-fiction shelves, and that should be recommended to Phillipa Gregory fans.

Booklist

2019-09-15
An Elizabethan sleuth investigates a murder on one of Sir Francis Drake's ships.

Plymouth, 1585. In a letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's Master Secretary, Drake explains that the suicide of crewman Robert Dunne prevents the good ship Elizabeth Bonaventure from setting sail on its voyage to the New World but asks that the queen not be told yet. Enter the brilliant but notorious Giordano Bruno (Sacrilege, 2012, etc.), summoned secretly by Drake through Sir Philip Sidney, the Queen's Master of the Ordnance. Sidney dangles the possibility of amnesty in London for the excommunicated monk and spy. Privately, Drake confesses his conviction to Sidney and Bruno that Dunne was murdered by someone onboard and that the killer will strike again if he's not apprehended. Bruno's investigation begins at the House of Vesta, a brothel frequented by Dunne, where shady characters may have sought to use him to get at supposed hidden riches belonging to Drake. Other clues include Dunne's gambling debts, theological scholars exploring the story of Judas Iscariot, and resistance from the not-so-grieving widow (what's that about?). A prostitute named Eve seems to hold all the answers. She directs them to Dunne's shabby lodgings on Rag Street, where more evidence awaits, including a convenient letter. Lady Drake is thrilled by the arrival of a royal Portuguese visitor who could facilitate Drake's departure, in effect stopping Bruno's investigation.

Parris' fourth Giordano Bruno mystery is long, leisurely, and labyrinthine, written in an ornate formal voice that echoes its era.

Kirkus Reviews

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