The Secret Dead

Perfect for fans of C.J. Sansom. A short story featuring Giordano Bruno: heretic, philosopher and spy, from Parris’s Sunday Times bestselling series.

Even the dead have a story to tell… Naples, 1566. During a sweltering summer, eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno takes his final vows at San Domenico Maggiore and is admitted to the Dominican Order – despite doubts over his tendency to ask difficult questions.

Assisting in the infirmary, Bruno witnesses an illicit autopsy performed on the body of a young woman. Her corpse reveals a dark secret, and Bruno suspects that hers may not have been an accidental death.

His investigation leads him to a powerful figure who wants to keep the truth buried – and Bruno is forced to make a choice between his future in the Order, and justice for an innocent victim and her grieving family…

Please note that this story, along with two other Giordano Bruno novellas, will be published as a 3-in-1 collection called The Dead of Winter, coming out in Hardback, ebook and audio in November 2020.

Praise for S. J. Parris: ‘It has everything – intrigue, mystery and excellent history’ Kate Mosse

‘Impossible to resist’ Daily Telegraph

Fascinating … The period is incredibly vivid and the story utterly gripping’ Conn Iggulden

‘A brilliantly unusual glimpse at the intrigues surrounding Queen Elizabeth I’ Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Ashes of London

‘Parris writes with confident ease of Tudor London’ The Times

‘Full of surprises’ TLS