Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-...
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Nov 29, 2010
Greg
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I couldn't read this book without always comparing it with John Crowley's Aegypt tetralogy. The works aren't similar at all except they both prominently feature Giordano Bruno. Crowley made Bruno into a full character and spent a good deal of time looking into the things that Bruno believed and studied. Parris just kind of throws them out there and the more interesting facets of the Nolan's studies are kind of lost and only get used to give a feeling of historicity and color to the story.
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May 11, 2011
± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ±
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Feb 28, 2010
Joe
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******Full Disclosure**** This was an ARC copy, that was received through the Goodreads Advance program. I am grateful for the chance to have read this novel, which I might not have purchased otherwise.
Written by S.J Parris, a pseudonym for "a journalist for various newspapers and magazines, including the Observer and the Guardian", named Stephanie Merritt, this is an historical novel that takes substance from the life story of a Roman Catholic excommunicate priest named Fili More...
Written by S.J Parris, a pseudonym for "a journalist for various newspapers and magazines, including the Observer and the Guardian", named Stephanie Merritt, this is an historical novel that takes substance from the life story of a Roman Catholic excommunicate priest named Fili More...
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Oct 04, 2011
Kinkajou
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It's 1583 and the war between Protestants and Catholics is at its height in England. Queen ELizabeth, convinced that all Catholics living on English soil are traitors intent on seeing her dead and allowing foreign Papist powers to invade and rule, spares no expense or effort to ferret out every single one.
Enter Doctor Giordano Bruno of Nola, a young Italian ex-monk who barely escaped the Inquisition himself nine years earlier. During his exile he wandered Europe, living off his wi More...
Enter Doctor Giordano Bruno of Nola, a young Italian ex-monk who barely escaped the Inquisition himself nine years earlier. During his exile he wandered Europe, living off his wi More...
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Jan 15, 2012
Aly
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I'm not a history expert. So I won't be wasting time quibbling about historical inaccuracies and whatnot. It all seemed reasonably apropos, none of the characters went off to catch up on the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries or anything equally jarring.
Besides, I don't think the purpose of this book is to educate anybody about life in the Tudor period. I hope not, because apart from shining a light on the religious hithers-and-thithers of that century, Heresy seems written for on More...
Besides, I don't think the purpose of this book is to educate anybody about life in the Tudor period. I hope not, because apart from shining a light on the religious hithers-and-thithers of that century, Heresy seems written for on More...
Nov 09, 2011
Sara
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This book really blew me away - I was definitely caught up in it by the end, huddled under the blankets reading long after I should have been asleep because I just HAD to finish it. The writing style is rich and detailed, and it's clear that quite a bit of research and historical knowledge has gone into the writing of the book. I'm not an expert on this period of British history, but what I do know about it rings true, and the rest of it certainly feels true in the telling of the story. I did
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Aug 17, 2011
Jason
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This book has all the makings of a terrific historical mystery:
1) Great time and place - England during the Elizabethan era
2) Great contextual and cultural undercurrent - Catholicism v. Protestantism; and a growing world view that's building momentum towards the Renaissance.
3) Cool lead character - Giordano Bruno, a real life mystic/priest/heretic/scientist
Unfortunately, the author wasn't able to build upon this foundation with an interesting enough story. The three More...
1) Great time and place - England during the Elizabethan era
2) Great contextual and cultural undercurrent - Catholicism v. Protestantism; and a growing world view that's building momentum towards the Renaissance.
3) Cool lead character - Giordano Bruno, a real life mystic/priest/heretic/scientist
Unfortunately, the author wasn't able to build upon this foundation with an interesting enough story. The three More...
Jul 28, 2011
Cornmaven
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Jun 07, 2011
Francois
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Although not a specialist of the period of Elizabeth's reign, this books seems to me very successful in recreating the period, it's atmosphere and it's problems. While Elizabeth was trying to have England truly accept the new faith while sparing when possible the sensitivity of those nostalgic about the Pope, numerous plots where taking place to restore the old faith and as many counter-plots to try to thwart those efforts.
It is in this context that a excommunicated former monk from I More...
It is in this context that a excommunicated former monk from I More...
Apr 05, 2011
LJ
rated it:
First Sentence: The outer door was thrown open with a crash that resounded along the passage, and the floorboards shook with the purposeful marching of several pairs of feet.
Philosopher and mathematician Giordano Bruno has come to Oxford, supposedly to debate on the theories of Copernicus. However, Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I, has sent him to seek out Catholics who seek to assassinate the Queen. He did not expect having to solve a series of murders where t More...
Philosopher and mathematician Giordano Bruno has come to Oxford, supposedly to debate on the theories of Copernicus. However, Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I, has sent him to seek out Catholics who seek to assassinate the Queen. He did not expect having to solve a series of murders where t More...
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Mar 07, 2011
Dianne
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The frame work of this whodunnit is historically accurate. Giordano Bruno, humanist, philosopher, Copernican did come under the attention of the inquisition and was excommunicated for reading Erasmus and other books on the Index. He was eventually executed by the inquisition for his unorthodox beliefs. He did spend 2 years in England and travel to Oxford. There are suggestions that he was recruited by Walsingham, Elizabeth I's master of spies. It was a time of anti-Catholicism, with Elizabeth ex
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Feb 28, 2011
Cornerofmadness
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Feb 23, 2011
Lindsey
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This was a really quick, fun historical crime novel. It kept you guessing on who would end up being the author of the crimes and why. At the end, the situation of Giordano Bruno is rather ambiguous. You know what has happened with him, and that he will continue on, but the nature of the crimes and explanations is such that you wonder how he is settling with the facts. The outcome is decidedly ambiguous. It's hard to be excited about the ending, and Giordano Bruno is not excied about it eith
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Jul 07, 2010
It is 1583, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and excommunicated Italian monk Giordano Bruno is in Oxford for a debate at the university. However, Bruno is secretly at the university for another reason; he is to look for subversive Catholics on behalf of the queen’s ministers. When a fellow of Oxford’s Lincoln college is seemingly murdered, Bruno decides to investigate.
The narrator of Heresy, Giordano Bruno, is a real life historical figure. A former monk, Bruno fled the Church’s More...
The narrator of Heresy, Giordano Bruno, is a real life historical figure. A former monk, Bruno fled the Church’s More...
Jun 26, 2010
Amy
rated it:
This book had really great potential, but lacked suspense and momentum. It takes place at Oxford during Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Former monk Giordano Bruno, who has been charged with heresy by the Catholic Church for his heliocentric views, is an intellectual guest at Oxford. He is also a reluctant agent of for the Church of England and is encouraged to report on any Catholic sympathizers who may be a threat to the queen and her realm. When murders occur in the college, Bruno takes it upon him
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Mar 16, 2010
Ronald
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Heresy is an historical novel telling the tale of Giordano Bruno's visitation to Oxford during the reign of Elizabeth I of England. The book smoothly blends facts and fiction to give us a very engaging tale of a mystery surrounding this man of many dimensions. As a young man, he was trained as a Catholic monk in Italy until his unorthodox views of the universe and Christian religion necessitated his timely departure, one step ahead of the Inquisition. He eventually gravitated to England ho More...
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Mar 11, 2010
This much is true: Giordano Bruno did go to Oxford in the spring of 1583, in the party of the Prince Palatine Albert Laski and Sir Philip Sidney, where he did engage in a debate on the Copernican theory.
On this thread, S.J. Parks (pseudonym of journalist Stephanie Merritt) has hung her murder mystery. The book opens as Bruno flees his monastery with the Inquisition nipping at his heels. We next see him on his way to Oxford, having traveled far both geographically and socially. By now More...
On this thread, S.J. Parks (pseudonym of journalist Stephanie Merritt) has hung her murder mystery. The book opens as Bruno flees his monastery with the Inquisition nipping at his heels. We next see him on his way to Oxford, having traveled far both geographically and socially. By now More...
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Feb 09, 2010
Heather
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I won this book in one of the first reads giveaways and was so excited. I hardly win anything. I like historical fiction but knew this one would be hard since it didn't involve any love story. It makes me sound shallow, I know, but who doesn't love a good love story as a plot or sub-plot?
I had trouble with the story from the beginning. I have read a lot about the Regency time period and the strict social etiquette that seems to disallow any offering of opinion except with intimate frie More...
I had trouble with the story from the beginning. I have read a lot about the Regency time period and the strict social etiquette that seems to disallow any offering of opinion except with intimate frie More...
Dec 12, 2009
Nancy
rated it:
My thanks to Bookbrowse for the chance to read an advance reading copy of this book.
Heresy is a medieval whodunit, with the star of the show being (Filippo) Giordano Bruno, the Italian heretic who escaped the Inquisition in Italy, spent time in France, then moved on to Elizabethan England, where supposedly he became a spy for the crown. It is at this juncture that the story begins in earnest, with Bruno being sent by Walsingham to Oxford to look for papist plots against the t More...
Heresy is a medieval whodunit, with the star of the show being (Filippo) Giordano Bruno, the Italian heretic who escaped the Inquisition in Italy, spent time in France, then moved on to Elizabethan England, where supposedly he became a spy for the crown. It is at this juncture that the story begins in earnest, with Bruno being sent by Walsingham to Oxford to look for papist plots against the t More...
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Feb 27, 2011
Carl
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More like 3.5+. In the spirit of Name of the Rose and Instance of the Fingerpost (which set the bar quite high for historical mysteries based on serious, often life and (grisly) death disputes over philosophy and religion), the plot of Heresy has its basis on the Catholic/Church of England divide in late 16th century England. Thrown into that is the character of 1st person narrator and unwitting P.I. Giordano Bruno, an excommunicated Dominican monk (who dared to espouse Copernican theory, and
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Nov 05, 2010
Shane
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The Historic Thriller “Heresy” written by S.J. Parris,features Gordano Bruno A man persecuted by the catholic church and chased so he can be executed on the charges of, what else heresy. When he flees to France he is contacted by a man who his second only to the queen. He tells Bruno to give him any information that can be of use to him, and in return this “man” will give Bruno anything he desires.
Myself and Bruno are very similar. We both have the same interests, like reading a More...
Myself and Bruno are very similar. We both have the same interests, like reading a More...
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Jan 14, 2010
Jeannie
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Reminiscent of Umberto Eco’s masterpiece novel The Name of the Rose, and with a similar style to that of C.J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake series, Heresy by S. J. Parris is a well penned mystery that is set in Oxford England in the year 1583. At a time when the Inquisition was hot on the heels to find anyone considered a heretic, the author fictionalizes the real life of the mysterious character of Giordano Bruno; alchemist, scholar, astronomer, philosopher and scientist.
The story be More...
The story be More...
Jul 02, 2010
Paula
rated it:
this is a great historical thriller/mystery, set in the middle of secretly elisabeth's reign, and our protagonist is an ex italian monk bruno (who really existed) who finds himself at oxford as an agent of spymaster walsingham. lots of intrigue, murder and mayhem ensue, based in excellently researched history.this book really impressed on me the importance of freedom of worship and freedom of the press. during the reighns of both queen mary and elisabeth people caught with religious pamphets,
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May 08, 2010
Kelly
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Heresy is set in the 1500s and is about a former monk who has two main aims. He's going to try and find out if anyone wants to kill/harm Queen Elizabeth I* and to try and find this book, which is rumored to be able to make men equal to God.
They set this up nicely for a sequel; no telling whether or not there will be one.
I enjoyed this book. It's been compared to The Name of the Rose (which I haven't read) but it's a very intellectual thriller. (It's also gross. People More...
They set this up nicely for a sequel; no telling whether or not there will be one.
I enjoyed this book. It's been compared to The Name of the Rose (which I haven't read) but it's a very intellectual thriller. (It's also gross. People More...
Aug 19, 2011
Ali
rated it:
I felt like this book was a bit flat from the beginning, for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then there was one of those action-y chase sequences near the climax that so many mystery novels have these days, that seem designed only to make the book more likely to be optioned as a film. ("The DaVinci Code" did a real disservice to book-y, historical mystery novels. Boo.)
But then I found out that many of the characters in the book are (loosely) based on real pe More...
But then I found out that many of the characters in the book are (loosely) based on real pe More...
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Mar 04, 2011
Irene
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A young monk in Italy, Giordano Bruno, has a passion for learning. Unfortunately for him, some of the books he reads are on the list of books forbidden by the Catholic church, and when he is caught by his superiors, the local Inquisitor is sent for. He manages to escape before the Inquisitor arrives and spends years on the run from the Inquisition and is excommunicated from the Catholic church for heresy.
Some years later he has made his way to England where he is enlisted as a spy More...
Some years later he has made his way to England where he is enlisted as a spy More...
Aug 06, 2010
Jennifer (JC-S)
rated it:
‘I was not afraid to die for my beliefs, but not until I had determined which beliefs were worth dying for.’
In a memorable prologue, we first encounter Giordano Bruno in the monastery privy as he surreptitiously reads a forbidden book by Erasmus. Once discovered, and to escape the Inquisition, he flees from Italy. Giordano Bruno was also a believer in Copernican cosmology, and it is his trip to England in 1583 to debate his cosmological theory with John Underhill, the Rector of Lin More...
In a memorable prologue, we first encounter Giordano Bruno in the monastery privy as he surreptitiously reads a forbidden book by Erasmus. Once discovered, and to escape the Inquisition, he flees from Italy. Giordano Bruno was also a believer in Copernican cosmology, and it is his trip to England in 1583 to debate his cosmological theory with John Underhill, the Rector of Lin More...
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Mar 25, 2011
Richard
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Mysteries, per se are not generally my area of interest. However, a historical mystery---now that's a horse of a different color. Set in the mid-Sixteenth Century, Brother Giordano Bruno is caught in the outhouse, late at night, reading a banned book (Erasmus), He is about to be turned over to the Inquisition, but then.... Sounds pretty funny, but in 16th Century Rome, heresy is a serious matter.
In Giordano Bruno, Parris creates an entirely believable, ambitious and charmingly flawe More...
In Giordano Bruno, Parris creates an entirely believable, ambitious and charmingly flawe More...
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Nov 23, 2010
C.w.
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Giordano Bruno was one of the 16th century's most erudite visionaries, a Dominican monk who fled the Church after being accused of heresy. His cosmological theories went beyond Copernicus's heliocentric visions; Bruno was the first European to conceptualize the universe as a vast continuum populated by many galaxies. He was also a visionary writer on the concept of memory and avid scholar of mysticism.
Naturally, his curious mind made him very unpopular with Catholic authorities, str More...
Naturally, his curious mind made him very unpopular with Catholic authorities, str More...
Mar 03, 2010
Linda
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Religious persecution is raging across Europe. Giordano Bruno has spent the past seven years eluding the Inquisition, while struggling to persist in his scientific and philosophical (i.e., heretical) studies and writings. Through his connections with England's Sydney family, Bruno is recruited by spymaster Walsingham to ferret out underground Catholics at Oxford University. No sooner does he arrive than one of the college fellows meets a brutal death. Strangely, the victim's colleagues do not se
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