Sacrilege

Summer, 1584: beneath a baking sun, fear has gripped the streets of London. The Protestant prince William of Orange has just been assassinated in the Netherlands by a fanatical Catholic, motivated by a rich reward from King Philip of Spain, and in England there are whispers that Queen Elizabeth will be Philip's next target.
At the French embassy Giordano Bruno, maverick agent of Sir Francis Walsingham, suspects he's being followed. When he runs the young man to ground, he discovers it is in fact Sophia Underhill, a beautiful young woman he knew from Oxford. She's on the run, having been accused of murdering of her husband, a prominent magistrate in Canterbury. Sophia convinces Bruno to leave London for Canterbury to clear her name. Walsingham agrees to Bruno's visit if he will investigate his suspicions of Catholic resistance in the city.
But Bruno has no idea of the dark secrets he is about to dig up. What is the macabre treasure in the Cathedral crypt that some of the most powerful men of the Cathedral Foundation, including Sophia's late husband, guard - a treasure they will go to any lengths to protect? To save Sophia from the gallows he must pit himself against powerful forces - including the ancient power that has slept beneath England's oldest Cathedral for centuries - while also wrestling with the newly-awakened conflict in his own heart...