The Jackdaw Mysteries by SW Perry are fantastic stories and The Heretic’s Mark, fourth in the series, is a twisty unpredictable story full of suspense. When the Queen’s physician is executed for treason, Nicholas Shelby is accused anonymously of being part of the plot. Nicholas and new wife Bianca flee abroad, unsure if they can ever return to England. Their first destination is Den Bosch in the Low Countries where, helped by Jan van der Molen, skipper of the herring boat which is their means of escape from England, they have time to draw breath. But it seems nowhere is far enough from forces wanting to lock them up. While Bianca says confession to a priest in the cathedral, Nicholas wanders into a side chapel he comes across a triptych, a three-panelled painting which presents a scene of horror. This is ‘The Last Judgement’ by Hieronymus Bosch. Though a practical man of science, the religious horror portrayed in the painting turns Nicholas to ice. Then a woman screams and two men are dead.
This is the trigger for Nicholas and Bianca to flee from Den Bosch, south along the Via Francigena, a pilgrim trail which ends in Rome. They take with them the young woman who screamed in the cathedral, a serious, proselytizing Hella Maas. Nicholas feels sympathy for her, her hard life, the death of her family. Bianca is impatient with her doom-laden words, her prophecies of doom, and questions her motivations. And so the odd trio make the road trip south, across the Alps. Once in Italy they part ways, Hella Maas to continue to Rome, the Shelbys to Padua, Bianca’s birthplace. The road journey takes up a lot of the story and, for my taste, could be more concise but it includes important foreshadowing of the eventual mystery; who is pursuing Nicholas and why. The answer is something I suspected but was unable to explain why.
Arriving in Padua, Bianca is reunited with her cousin Bruno Barrani, so introducing the sub-plot featuring Bruno and his attempts to make an armillary sphere for the city of Venice. He has raised the money and found the craftsmen, but scorns the accusations of heresy. At first this storyline seems so disconnected from the main plot to be superfluous, but in the last chapters the stories entwine. I found the third sub-plot, of Bianca’s servants Rose and Ned Monkton who stay in London to run the Jackdaw inn, riveting. Ned, determined to discover who wrongly condemned his master of treason, investigates a vague lead which brings him to the College of Physicians. Rose, pregnant with their first baby, wills him to be peaceful. Unfortunately the gentle giant is arrested for murder and sent to the Marshalsea prison.
Another good book from SW Perry who has quickly become a favourite. The next Jackdaw mystery is The Rebel’s Mark.
Note: I enjoyed the passing references to Giordano Bruno, the former Italian monk turned heretic and philosopher who features in the historical series by SJ Parris. If you haven’t read it yet, the first book is Heresy [there’s a link to my review below].

Here are my reviews of the first three books in the series:-
THE ANGEL’S MARK #1JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SERPENT’S MARK #2JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SARACEN’S MARK #3JACKDAWMYSTERIES 

If you like this, try:-
‘Heresy’ by SJ Parris #1GIORDANOBRUNO
‘Dark Aemilia’ by Sally O’Reilly
‘The Whispering Muse’ by Laura Purcell

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE HERETIC’S MARK by SW Perry @swperry_history https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8jp via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-