Giordano Bruno was a real-life 16th-century monk, poet, scientist, and magician, who fled from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy. In S.J. Parris's gripping historical fiction, Bruno's pursuit of rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Elizabeth I and sent undercover to Oxford University to ferret out Catholic sympathizers. But in this series debut, his mission is thrown off course by a series of grisly murders, and Bruno realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be.