Stephanie Merritt Books in Order

This collection gathers three early Bruno adventures, charting his years as a questioning young friar and fledgling investigator in Italy. Across murders, forbidden experiments and winter bound intrigues, he learns how dangerous the pursuit of knowledge can be in a world ruled by fear.

England, 1586. Bruno returns with evidence that a band of young Catholic gentlemen plan to assassinate Elizabeth and free Mary, Queen of Scots. Working inside the Babington plot, he must juggle Walsingham's ruthless strategy with his own conscience as bodies begin to fall.

In 1585 Paris, King Henry III fears his kingdom will fracture as Catholic League agitators challenge his rule. Bruno is summoned to investigate a string of deaths linked to the royal succession, forcing him to navigate brutal street politics and a dangerous alliance with English exiles.

As England edges toward war with Spain in 1585, Bruno travels to Plymouth with Sir Philip Sidney and joins Sir Francis Drake's fleet. A suspicious death aboard ship pulls him into the port's underworld, where tracking a killer exposes a conspiracy that could endanger the realm.

Set in Naples in 1566, this prequel novella finds eighteen year old Giordano Bruno newly vowed to the Dominican Order. When he helps with a forbidden autopsy on a young woman, he suspects murder and must choose between protecting his future or exposing the truth.

In 1584 Bruno is shocked to discover that the figure shadowing him through London is Sophia Underhill, the woman he once loved and who now stands accused of killing her husband. Following her to Canterbury, he uncovers fresh murders and secrets tied to Thomas Becket's lost shrine.

Autumn 1583, London seethes with rumours that an ominous planetary alignment foretells Queen Elizabeth's death. When a maid of honour is found murdered with occult symbols carved into her skin, Bruno must infiltrate treacherous circles at court before prophecy turns to disaster.

Bruno, exiled Italian monk and daring philosopher, arrives at Oxford in 1583, officially to debate the Copernican universe. Secretly spying for Elizabeth I, he is drawn into a series of gruesome murders and a hidden Catholic plot against the crown.