About the Book
England, 1598. Queen Elizabeth’s successor remains unnamed. The country teeters on a knife edge.
When a young heiress is found murdered at the theatre, the Queen’s spymaster Robert Cecil calls upon former agent Sophia de Wolfe to investigate.
A cryptic note found on the dead girl’s body connects to Sophia’s previous life as a spy, and her quest soon takes her into dangerous waters. Powerful enemies emerge, among them the Earl of Essex: the Queen’s favourite courtier and a man of ruthless ambition.
This is a murder that reaches directly into the heart of the court. And Sophia is concealing a deep-buried secret of her own. She must uncover the truth before her past threatens to destroy her.
Format: Hardcover (384 pages) Publisher: Hemlock Press
Publication date: 8th May 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime
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My Review
Traitor’s Legacy is the first in a new series featuring Sophia de Wolfe, former agent of Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. We discover pretty quickly that Sophia has had an eventful life including a previous marriage, an illegitimate son given up for adoption and coming under suspicion of murder. In fact, so detailed is her back story I found myself checking that I hadn’t missed an earlier book in the series. That is until I realised she had featured (then going by the name Sophia Underhill) in some of the books in the author’s Giordano Bruno series which I read years ago. However, although new readers might find them wishing for more detail about her colourful past, it does mean you don’t need to have read the Giordano Bruno books to enjoy this one.
Sophia is now a widow with a stepson who resents the fact she has inherited her late husband’s wealth. Her stepson is a drunkard, a gambler and a spendthrift with a potential for violence. Although Sophia’s was a marriage of convenience arranged by Walsingham to ensure her safety, she developed a real affection for her late husband Humphrey, often recalling his wise and supportive advice. Having said that, widowhood has given Sophia a certain freedom. ‘One of the great advantages of being a widow with her own money is that, for the first time in her life, she doesn’t have to submit to any man telling her what she can and can’t do.’
Our first encounter with Sophia is during a duel with her fencing master, so we know from the off she’s someone to be reckoned with. She’s resourceful, intrepid and resolute. ‘Here you are, like some kind of truffle-hound, determined to sniff out the truth and dig it up.’ Sophia has faced many obstacles in her life but has never given up trying to overcome them. ‘She has been raging all her life, for as long as she can remember, at one thing or another (usually the actions of men.’
Following the discovery of the dead girl’s body, Sophia is reunited with Anthony Munday, now a playwright for Richard Burbage’s theatre company, but formerly a pursuivant hunting Catholic priests smuggled into the country. This involved him working for Richard Topcliffe, notorious for his brutal interrogations. Munday now has a wife and children but his attachment to Sophia means that when her connection to the death of the girl becomes very personal he can’t help but get involved. I enjoyed the tease of the relationship between Sophia and Anthony. They’re certainly comrades but could they become something more to each other?
The plot revolves around the question of what was the motive for the murder? Was it an act of jealous rage by a spurned lover? Was it for financial gain given the dead girl was a wealthy heiress? Or was there a political angle to the murder? Answering those questions means taking on the rich and powerful, and Sophia and Anthony both find themselves in risky situations as a result. As she says at one point, ‘I feel with every step we’re tangling ourselves deeper in something that can’t end well’.
The book is set in 1598 towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign when the question of the succession was in a lot of minds and there was turmoil in Ireland where Catholics were suspected of supporting the enemies of England, notably Spain. Alongside the fictional characters, there are real historical figures including the Queen’s favourite, the Earl of Essex, his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, and Thomas Phelippes, Walsingham’s cryptographer who deciphered the coded letters of the Babington Plot conspirators. There’s even a walk-on part for William Shakespeare.
Traitor’s Legacy has everything I look for in a historical mystery: a deliciously complex plot, an engaging main character, a varied supporting cast and lots of period detail. It moves along at pace and, most importantly as far as I’m concerned, the ending is all nicely set up for the next book in the series. If you loved the Giordano Bruno series or you’re a fan of historical mysteries I think you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.
I received an advance reader copy courtesy of HarperCollins via NetGalley.
In three words: Compelling, intricate, fast-moving
Try something similar: Viper in the Nest by Georgina Clarke
About the Author
S. J. Parris is the pseudonym of Stephanie Merritt. It was as a student at Cambridge that 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 her series of historical thrillers featuring Giordano Bruno.
Stephanie has worked 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.
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