Traitor’s Legacy

‘Right from the intriguing opening pages everything Parris layers into this Elizabethan crime drama screams bestselling series’ Observer

‘SJ Parris begins what promises to be an equally entertaining new series with this novel set in late Elizabethan England’ The Times

‘Sophia is a splendid creation, brave, entrancing, warm and disdainful of convention. Parris writes as vividly about her characters and their feelings as she does about landscape and action. She uses enough modern words and phrases to break down barriers between readers and the 1590s, and her research is impressive’ Literary Review

‘SJ Parris is a writer who repeatedly proves that she is one of the most stylish of historical crime practitioners. Traitor’s Legacy finds England in 1598 awaiting the successor to Elizabeth, and the Queen’s spymaster Robert Cecil asks former agent Sophia de Wolfe to investigate the murder of an heiress. It’s commanding fare’ Financial Times

‘Elizabethan London comes alive in the hands of S. J. Parris […] Traitor’s Legacy, with its many twists and turns, offers an absorbing read. Highly recommended’ Historical Novel Society

’S. J. Parris has long been one of my favourite authors of historical crime thrillers, and this new series is every bit as compelling as her wonderful Bruno books. Sophia is a dazzling heroine, and the world of late Elizabethan England, brimful of plot and conspiracy, is vividly and thrillingly brought to life. I loved everything about it’ Laura Shepherd-Robinson

‘A stone-cold triumph … I hope this will be the first in a long series’ S.G. MacLean

‘A new historical crime novel from S.J. Parris is always cause for celebration but she really has excelled herself with Traitor’s Legacy’ Andrew Taylor

‘Thrilling, taut and utterly involving … a heart-stopping mystery. S.J. Parris brings time, place and protagonist, the deliciously brilliant Sophia de Wolfe, to dark and glorious life’ Helen Castor

S.J.Parris is the pseudonym of Stephanie Merritt. As a student at Cambridge researching a paper, Stephanie first became fascinated by the rich history of Tudor England and Renaissance Europe. Since then, her interest has grown and led her to create this series of historical thrillers featuring Giordano Bruno. Stephanie has worked as a critic and feature writer for a variety of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television. She currently writes for the Observer and the Guardian and lives in Surrey with her son.