The Heretic’s Mark

by S. W. Perry Book 4 in the The Jackdaw Mysteries series.

First published 2021

Amazon

4.3(5,714)

London, 1594. The execution of Queen Elizabeth’s physician Roderigo López for an alleged poisoning plot has filled the capital with rumour, suspicion and competing versions of treason. Nicholas Shelby, another unconventional doctor with uncomfortable links to the intelligence world, suddenly finds himself accused of involvement. Newly married, he and Bianca are forced to leave England with agents of the crown behind them, following the Via Francigena towards Padua and the city in which Bianca was born.

Their flight carries the Jackdaw Mysteries into the intellectual world of Renaissance Italy, where medical inquiry, anatomy and radical speculation promise forms of knowledge that can look like heresy to religious authorities. Safety proves temporary as Nicholas and Bianca encounter another murder and a fervently pious travelling companion whose apocalyptic convictions become increasingly disturbing. Perry links the disputed López affair to a broader question running through the novel: how dangerous can the pursuit of knowledge become when political power and religious certainty decide which ideas are permissible?