#1 – The Secret Dead
Naples, 1566. Eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno is still a novice in the Dominican order when he witnesses an illicit examination of a young woman’s body. What begins as an attempt to understand the cause of death leaves him convinced that she was murdered. Bruno’s search for an…
#2 – The Academy of Secrets
Naples, 1568. The young Dominican Giordano Bruno is invited into the private academy of Giambattista della Porta, where scholars test new ideas in natural philosophy, memory and the hidden properties of the world. The gatherings offer Bruno a freedom of inquiry that his religious order cannot…
#3 – A Christmas Requiem
Rome, 1569. Giordano Bruno is summoned to demonstrate his extraordinary memory before Pope Pius V. The invitation brings the young friar into the papal court, where austere religious authority exists beside patronage, rivalry and private ambition. Bruno becomes entangled with a group whose learning and behaviour…
#4 – Heresy
Oxford, 1583. Giordano Bruno travels with Philip Sidney to the university, officially as a visiting scholar but secretly on behalf of Francis Walsingham. His task is to identify Catholic networks that may be supporting plots against Elizabeth I, while he also searches for a manuscript whose…
#5 – Prophecy
London, autumn 1583. A maid of honour is found murdered with occult symbols cut into her body as astrologers predict upheaval from a rare planetary conjunction. Francis Walsingham asks Giordano Bruno to investigate while infiltrating supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots, who hope to replace Elizabeth…
#6 – Sacrilege
England, 1584. Sophia Underhill, the woman Bruno once loved, arrives in London accused of murdering her husband. Convinced that she has been framed, Bruno travels to Canterbury with Walsingham’s reluctant permission and begins investigating the victim’s household and the cathedral community. Further deaths lead him towards…
#7 – Treachery
Plymouth, August 1585. Francis Drake is assembling a fleet for an expedition against Spain when a man is found dead aboard his flagship. Giordano Bruno and Philip Sidney are drawn into the investigation before the murder can delay the voyage or reveal weakness to England’s enemies.…
#8 – Conspiracy
Paris, 1585. Giordano Bruno returns to the court of Henry III as the French monarchy faces pressure from the Catholic League and the Duke of Guise. When an old associate is murdered inside the royal palace, Bruno is ordered to investigate a crime that powerful factions…
#9 – Execution
England, 1586. Francis Walsingham has uncovered a Catholic conspiracy led by Anthony Babington to assassinate Elizabeth I and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne. Rather than arrest the plotters immediately, he allows the scheme to develop in the hope of obtaining written evidence against…
#10 – Alchemy
Prague, 1588. Giordano Bruno arrives at the court of Rudolf II, where astronomers, physicians, alchemists and religious exiles compete for imperial favour. Sent as an agent for Elizabeth I, he finds the palace in turmoil after the murder of an alchemist. Rudolf orders Bruno to identify…