The exciting new historical thriller featuring Giordano Bruno, radical philosopher and secret agent, for all fans of C.J. Sansom and The Name of the Rose Summer, 1584: fear grips the streets of London as rumours of a plague ship docked on the Thames sweep through the city. The Protestant Prince William of Orange has just been assassinated by a fanatical Catholic and there are whispers Queen Elizabeth will be next. Meanwhile in Canterbury, a prominent magistrate with links to the shady Cathedral Foundation has been murdered. Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to the Queen, has long suspected an undercurrent of Catholic resistance in the city that was once England's greatest centre of pilgrimage. He calls Giordano Bruno, his maverick secret agent, away from his post at the French Embassy to investigate. But when Bruno arrives in Canterbury, he has no idea of the dark secrets he's about to uncover. What is the macabre treasure in the cathedral crypt its guardians will go to any length to protect? Bruno must pit himself against a powerful conspiracy, while also wrestling with a newly awakened conflict in his own heart!

A gripping historical thriller set in sixteenth-century England and centered on the highly secretive cult of Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. London, summer of 1584: Radical philosopher, ex-monk, and spy Giordano Bruno suspects he is being followed by an old enemy. He is shocked to discover that his pursuer is in fact Sophia Underhill, a young woman with whom he was once in love. When Bruno learns that Sophia has been accused of murdering her husband, a prominent magistrate in Canterbury, he agrees to do anything he can to help clear her name. In the city that was once England's greatest center of pilgrimage, Bruno begins to uncover unsuspected secrets that point to the dead man being part of a larger and more dangerous plot in the making. He must turn his detective's eye on history — on Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and on the legend surrounding the disappearance of his body — in order to solve the crime. As Bruno's feelings for Sophia grow more intense, so does his fear that another murder is about to take place — perhaps his own. But more than Bruno's life is at stake in this vividly rendered, impeccably researched, and addictively page-turning whodunit — the stability of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Bruno hunts down a brutal murderer in the shadows of England's most ancient cathedral.

In the year of the Great Conjunction, the streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the mystery behind the deaths of several of her maids as rumors of black magic abound.