Sacrilege (Giordano Bruno 3) [Kindle Edition]

This is the third in the author's Giordano Bruno series. This time the action and the inevitable Catholic plot are centred around the precincts of Canterbury cathedral, an area which I know well, which added depth to the novel for me. The plot was rather convoluted, involving a fake miracle and the bones of St Thomas a Becket. It's colourful and absorbing and there were some interesting minor characters such as old Meg, Rebecca and Brother Anselm, but it doesn't have the impact on me of C J Sansom's novels. I think the issue for me is partly that, while Bruno is a fascinating figure in the history of religion and science, he is just not really plausible as a sleuth and spy, given that he stands out so much in Elizabethan England.

This is the third outing for Giordano Bruno, the monk on the run turned astronomer turned Walsingham's employee, following Heresyand Prophecy. The story commences shortly after the second installment with the return of Bruno's love interest from Prophecy, Sophie, who is on the run from Canterbury, due to her husband having being murdered and her being the prime suspect. She seeks Bruno's help to prove her innocence.

So starts the story, which evolves with Walsingham wanting Bruno to also investigate other strange goings on in Canterbury.... two birds with one stone, so to speak.

As with the other two books in the series, the novel has likable characters, is well written and has great descriptions of Tudor England.

However (you knew it was coming from a three star review didn't you?), I started to lose interest approximately halfway through, with the story starting to run out of steam.... much of the descriptions and story started to seem repetitive.

Maybe I have now read too many of this genre, as they are all starting to feel "samey"...? I had similar issues with the recent Rory Clements offering, Traitor and the last Shardlake to be published to date, Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake 5).

Ok, but not brilliant (but will still read the next in the series, as want to know what happens to both Bruno and Sophie!).

This is the third outing for SJ Parris's Elizabethan crime-solving monk-turned-astronomer Giordano Bruno, and in my opinion this excellent series is getting better with each instalment.

At the beginning of Book 3 Bruno is reunited with a past love interest who is on the run, accused of murdering her husband. She persuades Bruno (actually he doesn't take much persuading, he is Italian after all) to go with her to Canterbury, the scene of the crime, to investigate the murder and hopefully prove her innocence. Bruno seeks permission from his employer, the Queen's Private Secretary/ Spymaster, Francis Walsingham, who fortuitously has his own reasons for wanting to send his top sleuth to Canterbury, where he suspects that a nest of Catholic sympathisers is plotting yet another dastardly scheme to overthrow Queen Bess.

So off our hero goes on another of his (mis)adventures, which he admits he falls into "as other men fall in and out of alehouses". As well as investigating the murder of his friend's husband (and several others which quickly follow once he arrives in the city) Bruno becomes involved in the search for the bones of Thomas a Becket which are thought to have been removed to a safe haven during the Dissolution, as well as having yet another close encounter with that elusive ancient manuscript by Hermes Trismegistus which Bruno and a lot of other influential people are keen to get their hands on.

SJ Parris has created an extremely likeable and believable fictional persona for Giordano Bruno (a real historical figure of course). As in the previous two books, the plot is packed with intrigue, scheming, betrayal and assassinations, and the pace is fast and gripping with a cliff-hanger at the end of nearly every chapter and a twist at the denouement which I kicked myself for not suspecting earlier. The tone of these books is a bit lighter than, for example, CJ Sansom's Shardlake novels, but the historical detail is well researched and I'm enjoying this series just as much. At the end of Sacrilege the scene is set nicely for Bruno's next adventure - can't wait!