Prophecy by S. J. Parris

The real Giordano Bruno was a brilliant poet and philosopher, who was burned by the Inquisition in Rome in 1600. Before that tragedy, he lived for a while in England, which attracted him because it was relatively tolerant, and it is here that S.J. Parris has placed him in the year 1583. Prophecy is the second of a series and belongs to the same tradition as The Name of the Rose, the Cadfael novels, and C.J. Sansom’s superb books about Matthew Shardlake. The hero is a decent, enlightened man, whom modern readers will like, living in a violent superstitious society where he gets mixed up with powerful people and solves a few murders.

“Is the Virgin Queen fated to fall?” the cover asks. Well, we know she did not. But at the time people feared that the childless Queen Elizabeth might be assassinated, leading to civil war, or that Spain might invade England and enforce Catholicism. Bruno, who narrates the novel, does not want this to happen because he and a lot of other people would certainly be killed.

So he works for the spymaster Walsingham as a double agent, dealing with all sorts of people, including the French Ambassador’s lecherous wife, whom he has to deceive. All the time he knows that he is a permanent outsider, and that there are many things which humanity has not yet found out. The plot is foiled, but a freethinker like him will never really be safe.

The book is entertaining and absorbing. I look forward to hearing more about Bruno, and wish he would stay in England.