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A review by michaelcattigan
Execution by S.J. Parris
3.0
This is, I think, the sixth novel featuring Italian heretic Giordano Bruno from S. J. Parris. I've not read the previous ones but that didn't seem to affect my enjoyment of this one. Yes, it mentions the events in previous novels but there is no real prior knowledge needed.
The plot revolves around Giordano Bruno being instructed to infiltrate a plan to execute (or murder depending on your point of view) Elizabeth I and to put Mary Tudor on the throne in her place, returning England to the Catholic faith. A series of coincidences (Bruno arriving in England at the same time as a Spanish Catholic priest who bears enough resemblance to Bruno for their identities to be swapped) allows for the infiltration.
Alongside that, there is the grisly murder of Clara Poole, another one of Walsingham's agents in the plot, to investigate: has the infiltration been compromised? Do the conspirators know they are being spied on? Who murdered Clara? Can we secure enough evidence to trap and put on trial the conspirators, and even Mary Tudor herself?
This was a perfectly adequate enjoyable thrilller - a great fun summer read akin to C. J. Sansom. It suffers from the same issues as a number of these Tudor thrillers: the main character is almost always rather anachronistic and feels like a twentieth century character dropped into the sixteenth. Some of the depictions of characters was a little stereotyped and felt a little box-ticky: we had the somewhat aspergers character, the gay, the moor...
But at the end of the day, this is a great fun read!
The plot revolves around Giordano Bruno being instructed to infiltrate a plan to execute (or murder depending on your point of view) Elizabeth I and to put Mary Tudor on the throne in her place, returning England to the Catholic faith. A series of coincidences (Bruno arriving in England at the same time as a Spanish Catholic priest who bears enough resemblance to Bruno for their identities to be swapped) allows for the infiltration.
Alongside that, there is the grisly murder of Clara Poole, another one of Walsingham's agents in the plot, to investigate: has the infiltration been compromised? Do the conspirators know they are being spied on? Who murdered Clara? Can we secure enough evidence to trap and put on trial the conspirators, and even Mary Tudor herself?
This was a perfectly adequate enjoyable thrilller - a great fun summer read akin to C. J. Sansom. It suffers from the same issues as a number of these Tudor thrillers: the main character is almost always rather anachronistic and feels like a twentieth century character dropped into the sixteenth. Some of the depictions of characters was a little stereotyped and felt a little box-ticky: we had the somewhat aspergers character, the gay, the moor...
But at the end of the day, this is a great fun read!