"Heresy"

Author: S. J. Parris
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Religion/Beliefs
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages: 448
My Rating: Recommend

Heresy is a historical thriller with religious undertones. It offers something for everyone.

Synopsis: Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus. Giordano Bruno was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic. In S. J. Parris's gripping novel, Bruno's pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.

Review: I don't read a lot of mysteries, but I'd love to read another by this author. Maybe because I was raised Catholic I found this fascinating (the story is interwoven with the stories of Catholic martyrs). It was also interesting to read about a time in which there was no freedom of religion. We avoid a lot of problems in the United States by allowing Freedom of Religion and I hadn't given that much thought prior to reading this story. Heresy has an excellent plot with lots of twists and turns. Definitely a page turner although the first two chapters were a challenge - the language, the writing style, and just the information necessary to get the story going was challenging to read. I wanted to like it so I forced myself to hang in there and by chapter 3 I was hooked.