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Three gripping tales from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller S. J. Parris. The Secret DeadDuring the summer of 1566, a girl’s body is found within the walls of a Neapolitan monastery. Novice monk Giordano Bruno has a habit of asking difficult questions, but this time his investigations may lose him his place in the Dominican Order – or deliver him into the hands of the Inquisition. The Academy of SecretsAn invitation arrives from a secret society of enlightened philosophers, led by...

Now a major TV series Winner of the Man Booker Prize Shortlisted for the the Orange Prize Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award `Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good' Daily Mail ‘Our most brilliant English writer’ Guardian England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuse...

Virginia Woolf's "biography" tells the story of the cross-dressing, sex-changing Orlando who begins life as a young noble in the 16th century and moves through numerous historical and geographical worlds to finish as a modern woman writer in the 1920s. The book is in part a happy tribute to the life that her love for Vita Sackville-West had breathed into Virginia Woolf's own day-to-day existence; it is also Woolf's light-hearted and light-handed teasing out of the assumptions that lie behind the...

Ceremonial murder has returned to Florence. Only two men can end the destruction. Featuring Officer Cesare Aldo, Ritual of Fire is an atmospheric historical thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Italy.'Fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris' – Historical Novel Society'A deft and engrossing historical thriller set in Renaissance Florence' Anna MazzolaFlorence. Summer, 1538.A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More...

With the scant remains of Richard III lifted recently from such humble soil, Elizabeth Ashworth presents us here with the results of her own excavation. Perhaps no other ruler has engendered such a spirit of ambivalence in the British public - murderer or maverick, disfigured disgrace to the throne or exciting, romantic anti-hero, unafraid of getting his hands dirty in the heat of battle. The various contradictions that feed our understanding of the man are enacted here, focussing on a series of...

Rodger embarks on a mission to Florence, in search of an elusive assassin...In his fourth journal, A Brood of Vipers, Roger Shallot encounters treacherous conspiracies and terrible murders as he journeys from Tudor London to Florence. Paul Doherty's Tudor mysteries are perfect for fans of Susannah Gregory and C. J. Sansom.Spring 1523. Benjamin Daunbey and his rapscallion servant, Roger Shallot, are summoned to London. A Florentine envoy, Lord Francesco Abrizzi, has been murdered and King Henry i...

Witch. Some words can kill ...To Gude's son and grandchildren it could mean the loss of a loved one. To Gude it could mean torture and death at the stake. And to Gude's daughter-in-law it could mean one less mouth to feed. In a time when famine is rife and panic spreading, people resort to desperate measures in order to survive. So when Gude is accused of witchcraft by her daughter-in-law she must find the strength to clear her name and save her life ...

Lady Desire Godwin's gentle existence is shattered when a handsome brigand crosses the parapet. She watches dismayed, as this impudent stranger's carried off to gaol. As fire rages across London, Jakob Balston uses the confusion to escape. He fully expects that Desire will have already fled town. Only she is still there, at the mercy of the flames and alone...

Set in fourteenth century Italy, the story is about the enmity between two princes, Visconti, the evil Duke of Milan and Mastino della Scala, the dispossessed Duke of Verona. The hatred of these two men is the haut basis of the plot, but the lyrical descriptions of Milan and the countryside and the almost unbelievable cruelty and black heartedness of the unscrupulous Visconti, help to make the impact of this story a really tremendous one.

The No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling series The fourth book in S. J. Parris’s bestselling, critically acclaimed series following Giordano Bruno, set at the time of Queen Elizabeth I August, 1585. England is on the brink of war… Sir Francis Drake is preparing to launch a daring expedition against the Spanish when a murder aboard his ship changes everything. A relentless enemy. A treacherous conspiracy....