Free (Kindle/Kobo UK) Secret Dead by S. J. Parris [1560s Heretic Monk Mystery Short]

[ATDrake]

The Secret Dead by pseudonymous British author S. J. Parris (SYKM, Wikipedia), is a short story in her Giordano Bruno series of historical murder mysteries starring the eponymous real-life Dominican monk and astronomer (Wikipedia) in Elizabethan England, the backstory apparently being that he has fled his heresy charges in Italy and taken refuge as a spy for the Queen, this installment a bit of introductory backstory apparently set prior to that in Naples, as the newly sworn-in teenaged monk encounters his first mystery as a woman's death may not be as accidental as it seems (it almost never is), forcing the young Bruno to make a choice between his conscience and the Church, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher HarperCollins's uncollinated Harper imprint.

Currently free @ Amazon UK & iTunes UK & Kobo & Google Play (available to the UK, and apparently not in the other usual regional stores that sometimes get selected UK freebie when I spot-checked)

Description
A short story featuring Giordano Bruno: heretic, philosopher and spy. Perfect for fans of C.J. Sansom.

Even the dead have a story to tell…

Naples, 1566. During a sweltering summer, eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno takes his final vows at San Domenico Maggiore and is admitted to the Dominican Order – despite doubts over his tendency to ask difficult questions.

Assisting in the infirmary, Bruno witnesses an illicit autopsy performed on the body of a young woman. Her corpse reveals a dark secret, and Bruno suspects that hers may not have been an accidental death.

His investigation leads him to a powerful figure who wants to keep the truth buried – and Bruno is forced to make a choice between his future in the Order, and justice for an innocent victim and her grieving family…