At the heart of the Eternal City, danger hides around every corner…

Rome, 1569. When novice monk Giordano Bruno is told the pope wants to see him, his first thought is that it must be a joke. The second is that it must be a trap.

Young Bruno’s talent for complex memory games has caught the attention of the Lord’s Vicar. Summoned to Rome, the city captures Bruno’s imagination, and he soon slips away from his suspicious, austere host Fra Agostino da Montalcino, drawn instead to more glamorous, sophisticated companions.

But accusations of heresy are only ever a whisper away, and Rome is a city of intrigue, trickery and blood. Bruno soon realises he will be lucky to escape the Eternal City alive.

Please note that this story, along with two other Giordano Bruno novellas, will be published as a 3-in-1 collection called The Dead of Winter, coming out in Hardback, ebook and audio in November 2020.

Praise for S.J. Parris

‘A delicious blend of history and thriller’ The Times

‘An omnipresent sense of danger’ Daily Mail

‘Colourful characters, fast-moving plots and a world where one false step in religion or politics can mean a grisly death’ Sunday Times

‘Pacy, intricate, and thrilling… Full of historical detail and rich with atmosphere’ Observer

‘Twists and turns like a corkscrew of venomous snakes’ Stuart MacBride

‘Impossible to resist’ Daily Telegraph

‘It has everything – intrigue, mystery and excellent history’ Kate Mosse

‘Parris writes with confident ease of Tudor London’ The Times

‘Full of surprises’ TLS

Reviews

Praise for S. J. Parris:

‘Nimbly braiding history with suspense, this is a classy mystery’ Observer

‘An atmospheric sense of place. The plot twists and turns’ The Times

‘Immaculate… the depth of period detail, the all-enveloping sense of time and place, and the sheer gory drama’ Metro

‘Sumptuous’ New York Times

‘Parris’s attention to the details of Elizabethan life and her ability to create characters of depth are again on display in a gripping narrative’ The Sunday Times

‘Fast-paced and entertaining, it’s a well-researched and authentically claustrophobic romp through the Elizabethan underworld’ Mail on Sunday

‘Parris is one of the stars of historical crime fiction’ i

‘Superbly plotted, shimmeringly written, it will have you on the edge of your seat’ Kate Williams, author of The Storms of War

‘A delicious blend of history and thriller’ The Times

‘A tight plot combines with subtly-realised characters and an omnipresent sense of danger … My pleasure in the vividly textured backdrop and a cracking story was accompanied by an uneasy shudder’ Daily Mail

‘Colourful characters, fast-moving plots and a world where one false step in religion or politics can mean a grisly death’ Sunday Times

‘S. J. Parris is one of my favourite authors – and unquestionably our greatest living writer of historical thrillers’ A.J. Finn

‘Vivid, sprawling … Well-crafted, exuberant’ Financial Times

‘Successful historical thrillers need three elements: a killer plot that weaves seamlessly into the history; an engaging protagonist; and an atmospheric sense of place. Parris nails all three’ The Times