Summer, 1584: Fear grips the streets of London as rumours of a plague ship docked on the Thames sweep through the city. The Protestant Prince William of Orange has just been assassinated by a fanatical Catholic and there are whispers Queen Elizabeth will be next.

Meanwhile in Canterbury, a prominent magistrate with links to the shady Cathedral Foundation has been murdered. Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to the Queen, has long suspected an undercurrent of Catholic resistance in the city that was once England′s greatest centre of pilgrimage. He calls Giordano Bruno, his maverick secret agent, away from his post at the French embassy to investigate.

But when Bruno arrives in Canterbury, he has no idea of the dark secrets he′s about to uncover. What is the macabre treasure in the cathedral crypt its guardians will go to any length to protect? Bruno must pit himself against a powerful conspiracy, while also wrestling with a newly awakened conflict in his own heart …

Author Biography

S.J.Parris is the pseudonym of Stephanie Merritt. Since graduating from Cambridge she has worked as a critic and feature writer for a variety of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television. She currently writes for the Observer and the Guardian, and is the author of five books and one son.