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    Heresy
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    Heresy
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    Heresy
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Heresy

    Written by S. J. Parris

    Narrated by John Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

    Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 23, 2010
    ISBN9780307714305
    Unavailable
    Heresy
    Author

    S. J. Parris

    S. J. Parris is the pseudonym of Stephanie Merritt. It was as a student at Cambridge that Stephanie first became fascinated by the rich history of Tudor England and Renaissance Europe. Since then, her interest has grown and led her to create this series of historical thrillers featuring Giordano Bruno. Stephanie has worked for a variety of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television. She currently writes for the Observer and the Guardian and lives in Surrey with her son.

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    Reviews for Heresy

    3.5/5

    385 ratings72 reviews

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    • 4/5
      These days, we talk about Banned Book Week and we talk about censorship in school libraries, but in the 1500’s, they were serious about censorship. Get caught reading something on the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) and your prize was an appointment with the local Inquisitor. Based on the true story of Giordano Bruno — an Italian monk, excommunicated and on the run from the Inquisition — Heresy, by S. J. Parris, casts Bruno in the role of investigator, helping to solve a series of grisly murders while spying for Queen Elizabeth.Giordano Bruno did, in fact, lecture at Oxford University in 1583, and many of the characters in the book are known to history as well. Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Francis Walsingham, John Underhill, John Dee — they all played a part in history, as well as in Heresy. Bruno accepts the invitation to a debate at Oxford to expound on his theories of an infinite universe of independently moving heavenly bodies (ahead of his time). He is also approached by Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, and asked to do a little undercover work. The Queen is concerned about the possibility of renegade Catholics at Oxford. This was shortly after the publication of Regnans in Excelsis, the papal issued by Pope Pius V declaring Queen Elizabeth a heretic. There was good reason to believe that Catholic forces might make an attempt on the Queen’s life and strong measures were taken to discover and arrest them.I was very much caught up in the history of the novel. I could add dozens of links, telling more of the story of Bruno’s life, the Pope’s declarations against the Church of England, the Inquisition and more. It is hard to imagine living in the political climate of those times — Bruno had actually been condemned for reading the work of Erasmus in the privy — when people could be tortured and condemned to death, simply for reading works the church had deemed dangerous. One of the great successes of this story is that characters on all sides of the debate seem sympathetic. While Bruno has every reason to consider himself an enemy of the Pope and the Catholic Church, he has serious reservations about arresting people because of their manner of worship, or declaring anyone who is Catholic a mortal threat to the monarchy. He is troubled by these issues throughout the book.Read my full review at Alive on the Shelves
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this, a very good piece of historical fiction. I liked the way the writer mixed historical fact with fiction.
      I liked the fact that it was not obvious who the killer was and that right up until the end it could be anybody.
    • 4/5
      Oxford 1583. Protestant Queen Elizabeth I on throne of England for 25 years but subjects long to return to Catholic faith. Italian Monk Giordano Bruno has been charged with heresy for believing in a heliocentric universe. Plot to assassinate Elizabeth sends Bruno to Oxford which is a hotbed of Catholic rebellion. An Oxford fellow is murdered and Bruno is plunged into a game of cat and mouse as someone has a revenge against faith. But which faith?The plot started off slow but once the murder happened the storyline took off. The book is based on the real life of Giordano Bruno and S.J. Parris has masterfully researched and written an entertaining whodunit that is hard-to-put-down. I look forward to reading book 2 and recommend this series to those who like historical thrillers.
    • 4/5
      I’ve been putting off reading this book because it is over 600 pages long. The last book I read that was that long took me over 2 weeks to finish. Not so this one; three days was all it took. Mind you I was away from home with little in the way of distractions except gorgeous scenery and interesting birds and my husband so I maybe had a little more time to read than usual. However it seemed to me that it was a very quick read; that could have something to do with the subtitle which says “An Historical Thriller”. The year is 1583. Elizabeth I is the ruler of England and Catholicism is banned. Enter Giordano Bruno who was excommunicated from the Catholic church for daring to try to understand the secrets of the universe. Since he fled Italy he has taught and studied in France where he came to the attention and favour of King Henri. Recently he left France to try his fortunes in England. An old friend recommended him to Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and now Bruno is on his way to Oxford to try to sniff out Catholics who may be plotting to overthrow the Queen. Ostensibly he is accompanying a royal guest and debating the question of whether the sun revolves around the earth or the earth revolves around the sun (which Bruno believes). His debating opponent is Rector Underhill of Lincoln College and it is in Lincoln College that Bruno resides. The first night he meets Sophia Underhill the Rector’s daughter who has been educated unlike most gentlewomen of the time. Sophia is also lovely and Bruno is soon smitten with her. However soon he has other things to concern himself with as a professor of the college is horribly killed the next morning. Bruno was one of the first to witness the corpse and he agreed to help in the investigation because Rector Underhill didn’t want to involve the authorities in college affairs. Bodies start to pile up in the College and it becomes clear that each person slain has been made to appear like one of the martyrs depicted in Foxxe’s Book of Martyrs which is Rector Underhill’s special field of study. So is the college under attack or Underhill himself or is there some other purpose for the deaths? It is all revealed by the end.Here is a fine book for fans of C. J. Sansome’s Shardlake series or Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series. And it appears there is another book to follow.
    • 4/5
      i liked the book it was a mystery taking place in the 1500's. it was an easy read and one that kept you wanting to continue to it was done. having read many mysteries this one kept me guessing and not figuring it out to it was reveled. will look for more in the series
    • 4/5
      This book starts in Italy where Giordano Bruno is a monk who questions Catholic theology which is not acceptable in the 16th century. He manages to escape the ensuing inquisition and travels through Europe to arrive in London in 1583. Here he is tasked by Lord Walsingham to investigate underground Catholics at Oxford university.Here he is quickly involved in a sequence of events which turn the university upside down as Bruno endeavours to find out who is responsible and who is innocent of murder.I enjoyed this book which takes the reader into a world where every aspect of an individual's faith is examined in the finest detail and it's not a good thing if you deviate from what is perceived by thse in power to be correct.The character of Jenkes with his missing ears is particularly chilling as he controls those around him. Sophia is the daughter of the rector and Bruno is attracted to her which leads him to get himself into trouble on several occassions.If you enjoy the Shardlake novels then this is a book for you. It's not as strong but still a worthwhile read
    • 2/5
      I received this book as an uncorrected proof, for free, from the publisher through the LibraryThing ER program.It takes 20% of this book before the first of the two main plot threads mentioned in the cover copy appears, and the second of them does not actually exist (granted, that could have been a bad choice by the writer of the cover copy, and not the fault of the author). Before that, the book consists of exposition on a plot thread that does not have a resolution and infodumping on the part of scholars who suddenly want to lecture the protagonist on Oxford politics. For all the focus on theology and philosophy in the 20% of the book before the plot begins, we do not even get to read all of our protagonist's debate that brought him to Oxford, so it fails in being a Name of the Rose style philosophy mystery, there. Add in some behavior that does not feel authentic (16th century people of rank who ask virtual strangers to call them by their first names?) and the best thing I can say about this book is that it does not actively repell me.
    • 4/5
      This is a taut historical thriller. It's sometimes hard to wrap your mind around the fact that the setting is real, that people could live under such religious intolerance. There are lots of little details that bring Elizabethan England to life, and the characters all have their little tics to make them recognizable. I was worried at the beginning that I wouldn't be able to keep all the characters straight, but the author manages this well. The murders are almost too grisly, but again the author walks that fine line between medical and gory. It kept my attention and I wanted to know who was committing these horrible acts. Quite a few red herrings in the story, well placed. The ending was a bit of a letdown, maybe because it feels like a veil is suddenly lifted. I suppose that's why it's a mystery, though...the clues are there, quite obscure.Disclosure: I received this as an ARC from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      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. His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy. Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers
    • 4/5
      The only copy of this audiobook was the abridged version which is probably why I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Hopefully, Scribd will get the unabridged version soon. I just downloaded Book 2 , Prophecy, in this series and it is the u abridged version. I am looking forward to listening to it. I will review that one and let you know.
    • 2/5
      Long book about a scholar that was thrown out of the catholic monastery as a young man. Professor Bruno became a scholar, invited to Oxford at the same time as several deaths occur. Tangled story of conflicting religions, disguised monks, and a damsel in distress. Interesting, but much too long.
    • 4/5
      Not my favorite book, but good if you are a fan of historical mysteries.
    • 4/5
      This book introduces the character of Giordano Bruno, an excommunicated Italian monk who ends up in Elizabethan England under the protection of the French King Henri II and is recruited by Francis Walsingham as a spy. Bruno travels to Oxford to participate in a debate on the structure of the Universe and in search of a secret book, but also to spy on recalcitrant Catholics in this strictly Protestant land. He is drawn into solving a series of brutal murders and uncovering a secret ring of Catholic sympathisers.Parris draws us in with her fine depiction of Elizabethan life and very clearly describes the religious hysteria of the times. Bruno is a well-rounded character who displays sufficient strengths, weaknesses and internal conflicts to be utterly believable and for us to root for him as the story unfolds. Other characters are strongly drawn and we often find ourselves sympathising as we condemn.This is excellent both as an historical picture and as a driven thriller.
    • 4/5
      This story takes place at Oxford university in 1583. The story is told by Giordano Bruno of Nola in Italy. He is an excommunicated monk who escaped from his monastery prior to being tried for heresy for reading forbidden materials. After wandering the courts of Europe for 7 years he ends up at Oxford university as a guest of a friend of the Earl of Leicester. He is scheduled to debate his philosophy on the orbit of the planets in direct conflict with the beliefs of the day with the Rector Underhill. In the meantime, he becomes a spy for Walsingham, the chief spy for Elizabeth I. He is to uncover and report on secret Catholics who may be hiding among the academics. Since Henry VIII, the religious wars between the Church and the throne have become very bloody.This is a very good story told by Bruno as he investigates several murders at Oxford and then his becomes at risk because of his curiosity. The story is very well told. Note: The torture of "heretics" is hard to stomach.
    • 4/5
      Of all the historical figures one might pick to be the protagonist in a medieval thriller, Giordano Bruno is not the name that would have first come to mind. However, since his life on the run from the Catholic Inquisition was something of a thrill a minute, perhaps he is not so unlikely after all.S.J. Parris's Heresy opens with Bruno at age 28, having to escape from his Domenican monastery in Naples or face the Inquisition. His crime: reading forbidden books. Some seven years later, he turns up in London, having most recently been in residence at the court of Henri III of France as tutor and philosophe du jour. As an excommunicated monk, he is enlisted on behalf of Queen Elizabeth to serve as a de facto spy to help ferret out suspected papists, many of whom are believed to be a threat to the life and realm of the Queen. The papal bull Regnans in Excelsis ("reigning on high") of Pius V declared Elizabeth to be a heretic and released all her subjects from any allegiance to her and excommunicated any that obeyed her orders. It further encouraged overthrow of Elizabeth. Thus, the lingering presence of Catholicism in England was seen and treated as a real threat.Bruno goes to Oxford in the company of poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney for the purpose of engaging in a disputation with one of the college rectors, but while a guest at the college, a brutal murder takes place, to be followed by two more, which have anti-Catholic implications. Bruno is one of the first to arrive at the scene of the crime, and he is recruited on the quiet to help find out who the killer is. Many intrigues follow and suspicion is cast far and wide. When the guilty party is finally unmasked, it is unexpected and yet certain clues were there all the time.As a bit of well written escapist reading with a historical setting Heresy is not bad although I would not call it a page turner until the last quarter of the book. Parris has written three more Bruno thrillers, so if this one intrigues, there is more available to whet the appetite.
    • 2/5
      I found this book very disappointing. It could have been so good!The basic premise is certainly enticing. Giordano Bruno is a prime example of the Renaissance Man - scientist, literary lion and a dab hand with a dagger should the need arise, he is also a former, or more accurately, a disgraced and unfrocked monk ho has pulled off the startling feat of being excommunicated by the Catholic church and deemed a heretic by the Calvinists. Having fled from his monastery to escape the Inquisition he wends his worried way through Europe, ending up in England. There he is recruited by Queen Elizabeth's feted spymaster Lord Walsingham.All this sets a scene crying out for a rattling good story, and that is where Parris lets us down. The novel is far too long and moves with geological slowness - I have seen more action from the concrete cows that abound around Milton Keynes. When we first meet Bruno he is hiding in a monastic privy into which he throws the proscribed tome that he was reading. If I had had access to a suitably accommodating cludgie beyond risk of blockage I would have followed his example with this one!
    • 3/5
      I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped to. Since the primary character, Giordano Bruno was based on a real Jesuit monk who believed in the Copernicus model of the solar system and was excommunicated because of that, I was looking forward to a mystery involving the science but instead it turned to the intrigue of hidden Catholics and plots within plots.As such, I laboriously plowed through descriptions of the school, libraries, dark, rainy nights, and some really gruesome murders staged to apparently duplicate deaths of Catholic saints. No orbiting planets in sight except for one brief, rudely interrupted debate where the opposition offered no new arguments against the theory.I would have enjoyed this book more if I was interested in the Catholic/Protestant struggles.
    • 2/5
      so i just skimmed through it. i gotta say the former monk Bruno was not an attractive character. he was so arrogant. plus his philosophy was just to heretical for me and i read about all sorts of blasphemous stuff, but i guess a person who thinks he is equal to God or gods is to much for me i guess. paganism i and atheist i can handle but that was just oh so arrogant. skimmed through and read it. nice lil mystery and ruder going on but still not that into it. oh well.
    • 1/5
      nope - and I don't expect to be making a return visit with this one
    • 1/5
      "Heresy" is yet another take on the current obsession with the Tudor period by publishers of popular fiction. S.J. Parris introduces us to Giordano Bruno, former catholic monk and now an itinerant academic who wanders across the universities and courts of Europe. Due to his connections with a member of the English aristocracy he is introduced to Walsingham (Elizabeth's secretary and spy master). For some reason Walsingham takes a shine to Bruno, and it's while visiting Oxford University for apparently academic purposes that he becomes embroiled in a strange case of murder.

      Parris is a good stylist and writes dense, detailed text, having clearly given lots of thought to her craft; fine as long as you don't forget that the other element required is 'plot'...well for me it is. Parris seems to forget this, as she relishes the dense and descriptive detail of the various theories regarding Catholicism and Protestantism, with large doses of philosophy and monastic history thrown in for good measure. There were times when I felt as though I'd been severely beaten over the head with all her detailed background knowledge. To me, this simply slowed the story down and was a turn-off. The actual mystery takes second stage to all the descriptive babble, and isn't helped by the sub-plot of Bruno's search for some long-lost manuscript or other; after a while I couldn't bring myself to care.

      I finished this book only because I was away on holiday at the time and didn't have easy access to anything else to read. I can't recommend it to others, and suggest that if it's Tudor historical fiction that you're after, stick with C.J. Sansom and Rory Clements.

      © Koplowitz 2012

    • 3/5
      Walshingham has a complicated network of spies and agents around England, one of his agents is Giordano Bruno (a real man) who with Sir Philip Sidney and a polish visitor go to Oxford, there he debates the heliocentric model of the world with John Underhill, at the time Rector of Lincoln College. There Bruno meets with his daughter, Sophia and many of the characters around the college. It's not long into a period of reform and Roman Catholic conspiracy is rife. At the time it was a complicated and messy situation, still today with echoes and shadows.When murder starts to become an issue, Bruno has to investigate and things become dangerous. It's complicated and messy and it just didn't really flow for me. It didn't really feel as if using Bruno as detective was a logical conclusion by the Rector. It's not a bad story and it did keep me reading but overall I was underwhelmed.Not bad, felt like a first book, the investigation felt a bit forced. No rush to read more by this author but wouldn't refuse to.
    • 3/5
      My review of this book can be summed up in one sentence. It was good enough for me to finish it but not good enough that I'll read the second one in the series.
    • 5/5
      I really liked the way this book was written. The characters were very believable and interesting, and I the story flowed so well I never got bored. I am hoping that S.J. Parris will write more books on Bruno's adventures.
    • 4/5
      "Heresy" appealed to me on various levels, and above all, it was a good story, presented in a logical, coherent and entertaining way. The author successfully convinces you that you can and should overlook people speaking modern English in Elizabethan England.
    • 4/5
      We first meet our protagonist Giordano Bruno on the privy, reading a forbidden text in a monastery in Naples in the 1500s.Unfortunately he is discovered, and Bruno's unabated desire for forbidden knowledge and the alleged sin of pride makes him a target for the Inquisition and he is forced to flee Naples. On the run for years, he agrees to go to Oxford in 1583 to work as a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham to root out traitors to Queen Elizabeth I. Those practising Catholicism must do so in secret, and it is feared that there are plots to assassinate the Queen in order to return England to the Catholic faith.However there is soon a bloody murder in Oxford and others tragically follow. Bruno begins to investigate, not knowing whether the murders are related to a treasonous plot or the work of a bloodthirsty member of the University.Not trusted due to his status as an outsider, Bruno runs into his fair share of difficulties and this is further complicated by his own private and secret mission to use the opportunity in Oxford to track down an extremely rare manuscript.Heresy is an excellent historical fiction novel, and the reader is able to gain a wonderful sense of being in 1500s Oxford. In fact, I was in London at the time of reading the novel, and twice visited Oxford while reading this book. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading these pages, having just visited these locations and being able to picture the places and scenes precisely as they were described. It really added to my reading pleasure.Heresy is the first in the Giordano Bruno series of books by S.J. Parris, of which - at the time of this review - there are three:1.Heresy by S.J. Parris2.Prophecy by S.J. Parris3.Sacrilege by S.J. ParrisI have the next book in the series on my shelf already, Prophecy, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
    • 4/5
      Readable book, but with a slow start and overlong end. Unfortunately it does not match up well with the Shardlake books by C.J Sansom. The reason for me being the historical detail is not well written or feels as deeply researched, and the character of Bruno does not feel that believable or even sympathetic, despite being based on a real person.Hopefully, this is just the author finding her feet with the character and the later books are better.
    • 3/5
      After fleeing from an Italian monastery to escape the Inquisition, former monk Giordano Bruno eventually ends up in Oxford during Elizabeth I's reign. Before making a trip to Oxford with his friend, Philip Sidney, Bruno is enlisted by Sir Francis Walsingham to provide information on the underground Catholic movement in Oxford. Bruno is a guest at Lincoln College, where he is to engage in a disputation with its rector, John Underhill. Before the disputation, the college is thrown into turmoil by the death of one of its members. Both Bruno and the rector suspect murder. Despite Underhill's undisguised dislike of Bruno, he tasks Bruno with undertaking a quiet investigation of the murder. Soon, there is another death, and another, and the circumstances seem to have a strange literary connection.Even though the plot, characters, and setting were all interesting, I didn't have any trouble when I had to stop at a climactic point in the story. Something about the book didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the reader on the audio version, who I thought read a little too fast and with too little expression. Maybe it was the forcing of fictional events (the murders) and characters into the framework of a real event (the disputation). I wondered as I listened what the purpose of the disputation was. It seemed to be a distraction from the plot, and I thought the story would have worked better without it. I found out afterward that the disputation was an actual historic event. I'll give this series another try before I give up on it. Next time I'll try the print (or ebook) version rather than the audio and see if that makes a difference.
    • 4/5
      Irony abounds as Giordano Bruno, on the run from the Inquisition in his own Italy, arrives in Oxford in hopes of locating a rare book (that is outlawed by the churches both in Rome and in England). He is immediately drawn into a mystery involving the murder of a college don which is posed as similar to the death of a Christian martyr.Suspicion and fear dominates everyone as England is in the throws of a religious war, with the state fearful of every Catholic and the possibility of a far worse death than hanging facing anyone, no matter how innocent they may be if they are accused by someone in power.The mystery is complex enough to hold one's attention and the main character, although a bit dim at times, is engaging. I look forward to book 2 of the series.
    • 2/5
      Based loosely on the life of Giordano Bruno, this mystery is set in the time of Queen Elizabeth in the setting of Oxford University. Though the premise is somewhat interesting, the killing of members of community, based on the deaths of saints, I found the pace very slow. I would give it 2 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      In 1583, Giordano Bruno, a former Italian monk who has been ex-communicated and branded a heretic for reading a banned book, travels to Oxford University with two purposes. The first is his pursuit of an ancient, lost manuscript that he believes holds the key to unlocking revolutionary secrets - if it exists, that is. Secondly, the Queen's powerful spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has requested that he travel there in order to secretly investigate recent reports that a number of Oxford men are Catholic, despite such loyalties being strictly forbidden by the Protestant Elizabeth I.I just loved the opening scene of this historical mystery, in which Bruno is frantically reading a banned book in the privacy of his abbey's outhouse. Coincidentally, I can remember quite well stashing books in the bathrooms of my childhood homes, waiting for a moment in the day when I could sneak off and go lock myself inside, supposedly taking a long shower (I was famous for them) while reading books that were "for older people" and not exactly approved of by my parents at the time.Thus, the scene brought back fond memories.Once Bruno is at Oxford, he is immediately thrown into a web of new intrigue and old secrets. Shortly after his arrival, a man is brutally killed by a wild dog in the courtyard. Though the incident appears to be an accident, Bruno's instincts and attention to detail leads him to believe that this 'accident' was in fact a murder. As he investigates, other victims at the university are also killed, until no one can deny that there is a killer in their midst. The plot of this book was all very closely tied to religion in the Elizabethan era. Bruno's detective work concerning the string of murders leads him down a winding path of loyalties and politics, all closely intertwined with the Church, whether Catholic or Protestant. The sub-plot, of Bruno's commissioned espionage for Walsingham, is essentially to root out Catholics and report them. Though Bruno does succeed in finding those who practice the old religion, he muses to himself about why exactly this is so wrong, and why the Queen's spymaster should concern himself with what religion other men choose to follow.The second sub-plot, of the main character's quest to find the lost Copernican book (rumored to have been shelved in a hidden Oxford library), is also underlined in religion. Bruno seeks the book as he believes that it would answer many people's questions about God and the universe. Unconsciously, Bruno recognizes that the international unrest caused by church leaders and religious law could do with changing.This book was fast paced and exciting, and I read it fairly quickly. I loved so many of the elements that the plot offered - the seeking of lost books, 16th-Century Oxford University, a priest/writer/spy hunting a murderer... It was all intriguing and certainly added a lot to the book, even if this was where it stayed.This was a good book, but far from a great one - not for any particular reason, but simply for the type of book it is. The author gives quite a few nods to Umberto Eco in her writing, and there are some hard-to-miss plot similarities between this book and "The Name of the Rose." However, I believe that Parris' story would have been far better off without these references. The truth is, this book is just your average historical mystery, read and approached lightly, for entertainment and/or to pass the time. Eco's writing, on the other hand, is brilliantly literary, the type of author that you ought to read (whether you like him or not) simply because he is one of the greatest novelists of the past century. In other words, you shouldn't blatantly invite comparisons to Umberto Eco if you are admittedly leagues beneath him. The character of Bruno didn't come across to me as well as I had thought it would. I loved him in the opening passages, as I stated above, but after that, the book focused on events going on rather than on Bruno himself. Though it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story, I only stopped to think after I had completed "Heresy" that I still didn't really have a sense of who Bruno himself was. But perhaps he will be filled out more in the sequel - which is in the mail on its way to my shelves now.I just loved the setting of Oxford, and I had been so excited to find a historical mystery set there. I am familiar with Renaissance Oxford in a sense of knowing its history, and look forward to one day actually going there.Parris' depiction of Oxford wasn't quite so richly textured as I was hoping it would be, and yet, she never lets the reader forget about the setting. Bruno's detective adventures lead him to explore a good part of the university, and I loved the brief sharing of history and facts here and there.The only glaringly negative aspect I could find here was Bruno's romantic interest, Sophia Underhill. At first it looked as though she was to be a major part of the story, but she was actually useless to the plot, and the climax (which involved her) felt catered toward her character, as if Parris felt obligated to center things around the only female. I didn't like her at all, and the way that Bruno's thoughts and emotions when it came to romance were approached seemed unconvincing and silly.Besides a bit of a disappointing climax (it was thrilling, but somehow... hmm, not quite right), I really enjoyed reading this Renaissance mystery. Giordano Bruno was actually a real person, and the author provides plenty of information on him in her author's note. I love finding obscure characters of history like that.Recommended for those who enjoy historical mysteries or are interested in religious politics of the Elizabethan era. I am looking forward to reading the second book.