The Giordano Bruno historical mystery series by SJ Parris is into its stride now. Treachery is fourth in the series and my favourite so far. It is 1585 and Sir Francis Drake is assembling a fleet of ships to attack the Spanish. Bruno, with poet and gentleman Sir Philip Sidney, visits Plymouth as the covert expedition is about to leave. But departure is delayed by a murder on board the flagship ‘Elizabeth Bonaventure’ and Bruno agrees to solve the crime. A slow-build that turns into a page-turning mystery, Parris twists the plot this way and that, suspects come, go, and return as Bruno tracks the murderer on water and on land. Plymouth is a colourful setting for the mystery. Set three years before Drake plays bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Spanish Armada approaches, Parris weaves a complicated tale of European politics, spies, military strategy plus old-fashioned greed and revenge. Bruno follows clues in the city via an upmarket brothel to Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound, a small fortified island reached only by boat. Or, according to local legend, through a maze of secret underground tunnels used by smugglers and villains.
Giordano Bruno, the Italian who longs for his home but cannot return, is no longer a monk but a philosopher, academic, a foreigner wherever he lives and works; all things that make him the man he is. A modern man in the sixteenth-century. ‘My face, my voice, my ideas mark me as different. Perhaps, as I have often feared, a man like me belongs everywhere and nowhere.’ Is that why he makes such a good spy, a good solver of crime? He is brave and has a poker face which is useful when confronting suspects, but is sensitive also to emotion and fear. And in the background lurk the influence of master spy Sir Francis Walsingham and political demands of Queen Elizabeth I. Parris mixes fact, particularly the lasting impact of Drake’s earlier voyages and the friends and foes, and some characters are real.
For one said to be good at solving mysteries, Bruno does have a tendency to backing his latest theory and throwing accusations around. But perhaps causing trouble is his gift as a detector as his efforts invariably upset some people, so he makes enemies but also uncovers new clues and suspects. Bruno is such a likeable hero, brave but not macho, lacking the peacock posturing of Sidney and the politicking of Drake. In his position in society as an outsider in a foreign country in politically uncertain times, he is cautious but given to moments of recklessness. It is these moments that enable Parris to kick-start the plot to a new level of tension.
A sprawling story with connections to characters from the previous books in the series, I approached the end turning pages quickly and reading into the night to finish it.
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Read my reviews of other books in the series:-
HERESY #1GiordanoBruno
PROPHECY #2GiordanoBruno
SACRILEGE #3GiordanoBruno

If you like this, try:-
‘The Fire Court’ by Andrew Taylor #FireofLondon2
‘The Swift and the Harrier’ by Minette Walters
‘The Key in the Lock’ by Beth Underdown

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview TREACHERY by SJ Parris @thestephmerritt https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7uw via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-