Heresy by S.J. Parris: Giordano Bruno is an excommunicated monk on the run from the Inquisition for reading subversive literature. A few years later he ends up in Queen Elizabeth’s employ to root out Catholics at Oxford. When university fellows start turning up dead, Bruno finds himself in the middle of a long-standing feud over religion, love, and money. No one is what they seem, and though the culprit’s identity is hinted at throughout the story, I was never quite sure until the very end.

Even more interesting is the fact that Bruno was a real person. The author, having read his various journals and other works, discovered he’d left Oxford with a bad taste in his mouth, and wondered why. This novel is a fanciful answer to that question, clever and quite readable without losing the gritty reality of the time period.

Also posted on BookCrossing.
Read for the Books Won Challenge.