In Heresy, Giordano Bruno is a former monk, fleeing Italy to escape being questioned by the Inquisition. Through a sort of glossed-over beginning of the story, he manages to worm his way into the confidences of King Henri III of France and then Elizabeth of England.
It’s almost impossible to read a historical novel these days (outside of romances) without reading of cruel, gruesome tortures, and Heresy is no different. A series of murders begins at Oxford, where Bruno is there investigating the existence of Papists. These murders are done in such a manner that it is clear that there is a pattern and Bruno sets out to find out who the murderer is.
As I read the book I was alternatively fascinated and bored by it. It was such a strange feeling. The mystery parts, the divulging of the clues, the murders, should have been the parts grabbing my interest the most but I just couldn’t get that into them. I found myself more interested in the portrayal of what it would have been like to be a Catholic under the rule of Elizabeth, and how different it would have been to feel that you have freedom… but it was freedom with limitations.
S.J. Parris (pseudonym of journalist Stephanie Merritt) based this book on a single event that occurs in the first half of the book – that of the debate taking place at Oxford on the Copernican theory. For those interested in historical mysteries, I would recommend this book – it is a solid murder mystery with elegant twists and turns. I just found myself more interested in the historical aspect instead of the mystery.
