Alchemy: The latest new gripping historical crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author: Book 7 (Giordano Bruno)
£9.19£9.99 (-8%)
The new historical crime thriller in the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel
Prague, 1588.
A COURT IN TURMOIL
The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, wants to expand the boundaries of human knowledge, and his court is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. His abiding passion is the feverish search for the philosopher’s stone and thus immortality. The Catholic Church fears he has pushed too far, into the forbidden realm of heresy – and the greatest powers in Christendom are concerned about the imperial line of succession.
A MURDERED ALCHEMIST
Giordano Bruno is sent to his court by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster. His task: to contact the famous English alchemist and mystic John Dee, another of Walsingham’s spies. But Bruno’s arrival in Prague coincides with the brutal murder of a rival alchemist – and John Dee himself has disappeared.
AN UNFORGIVING ENEMY
Ordered by the emperor to find the killer, Bruno’s investigations bring him face to face with an old enemy from the Inquisition. But could the real danger lie elsewhere? Amidst the jostling factions at court and the religious tensions brewing in the city, Bruno has to track down a murderer as elusive as the elixir of life itself.
‘The clever twists and turns of Alchemy are assuredly plotted and Prague, a city in religious and political turmoil, makes for a powerful setting’ The Times
‘Over the past dozen years, S. J. Parris’s novels… have been among the most enjoyable of all historical thrillers’ Sunday Times
‘Breathless pace and acutely observed detail make for a story that confounds and surprises’ Observer
S. J. Parris’s book Alchemy was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-07-2023
S. J. Parris’ book ‘Alchemy’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 24-07-2023.
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Additional information
| Publisher | HarperCollins (14 Mar. 2024) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 480 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0008208573 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0008208578 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 3 x 19.8 cm |
by Gerald
Bruno is a wonderful character who always manages to get there in the end despite tribulations! He has a kindly disposition and an unrequited longing to find the right woman,which eludes him each time. This is another great read which I thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend.
by Robert Lawson
Have read all the previous books in this series, enjoyed them immensely, this was was no exception. A gripping read!
by Allan B.
A very good read , pacy with a good plot that challenges your “ detective logic” you almost feel part of the story. Good one to buy
by Amanda Craig
With this wonderfully suspenseful novel, Stephanie Merritt ( SH Parris) has surpassed CJ Sansom, and Umberto Eco, my gold standard for historical detective fiction of the highest kind. Her (real life) philisopher & detective Giordano Bruno is is Prague, looking for the vanished “magician” John Dee in a viper’s nest of anti-Semites, Inquisitorial Catholics and murderous alchemists vying for the Emperor’s favour. A Golem is supposedly killing Jews and Gentiles alike. The writing, atmosphere, detail and characterisation all first rate. I could not stop reading it all yesterday. Esp enjoyed Bruno’s teenaged sidekick.
by Chuma
I bought this book before my trip to Prague and read it while I was there. It’s amazing to visit some of the places mentioned in the book.
A very fascinating read, I loved all the intriguing twists and turns.
by Brian Clegg
Two writers shine when it comes to Tudorbethan murder mysteries: C. J. Sansom for his Shardlake books and S. J. Parris (Stephanie Merritt) for her novels with the unlikely figure of Giordano Bruno as detective. For popular science writers, the historical Bruno is a bit of a problem, as he is often portrayed as a martyr for science, but in reality was a mystic whose ideas were unoriginal and whose execution was for common-or-garden heresy, rather than being ahead of his time on cosmology. But as a detective he makes a great character in the loveable rogue with a conscience tradition. Think a sixteenth century version of Lovejoy (the books, not the TV series), but with less of tendency to kill people. Parris makes great use of this in her series of novels.
This latest, Alchemy, is set in Prague in 1588. The setting, with its contrasts of the Emperor’s palace and the conditions of the poor is handled excellently. There’s a particular opportunity here to explore some of the oddities of the period – and its biases – both in the bizarre work of the alchemists who feature in a big way, the power of the Catholic Church, and the treatment of the Jewish ghetto, which also play a major part.
As is often the case in Parris’s books, Bruno is a reluctant detective, with a whole range of factions vying against him and providing potential suspects – including a form Catholic inquisitor and his Spanish thugs and the various hangers on hoping for the benefaction of the Holy Roman Emperor, who is generally a weak individual but is challenging the church.
What’s great about both Parris and Sansom’s books is that they give us all the enjoyment of the immersing in the period you get from a quality historical fiction novel, but at the same time provide us with some fun in trying to work out what’s happening with the murder mystery – in this case one that is blamed by some on a golem, neatly tying in with the legend attached to the historical character Rabbi Loew. The one disadvantage Parris has in comparison with Sansom, whose detective is fictional, is that we do know Bruno’s eventual fate (just as we did with Thomas Cromwell in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall books), and there’s always a slight frisson of ‘will this be the last book?’ I had to restrain myself from looking up when Bruno was executed (though Parris has confirmed he will have at least a couple more outings).
The only criticism I have is the book is perhaps a little over long – but I had a great time reading it. Parris gives us an engaging and complex mystery to unravel in a dramatically different world from modern Europe.
by chris dobson
A nother great historical story. kept me on the edge of my seat right to the end.
by Jennyanydots
I have gulped down each of the Bruno Giordano books as soon as I can get my hands on them. I really enjoy the development of his character and his backstory, as well as each intriguing mystery. The setting here is the creepy court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. He is an interesting figure in his own right, unusually tolerant of other religions, a man of science but obsessed by alchemy, a collector of books and one of the first owners of a cabinet of curiosities filled with the strange and the weird from all over Europe and beyond. Bruno arrives in Prague at the request of Elizabeth I’s spymaster Walsingham, an old friend and sometime adversary, in pursuit of the Queen’s former magician John Dee who has gone missing. The adventures start from there and follow through to a very satisfying conclusion having followed many deaths, twists and turns, and much skulduggery along the way with plenty of well-researched, rich historical detail. The portrait of the Jewish community in Prague is especially sympathetic and fascinating. What I especially liked about this book is that Bruno acquires two sidekicks, one of them his hapless but sweet-natured and innocent pupil Besler who is constantly in trouble but with the best of intentions, and the other a motherless and neglected child Sukie who is more than a match for Bruno and anyone else. There is a strong element of gentle comedy in this book which is extremely enjoyable and shows another side to Bruno. There is also less of our hero mooning about over impossible lady-loves, although not altogether, which makes a welcome change. I loved this book and thoroughly recommend it to all Giordano fans and to all those who have an interest in the Elizabeth spy network and the court and culture of Prague at this fascinating time in history. Five stars from me!