The heretic - Henry Vyner-Brooks

1536: a year when strange ideas intrude, strange lands are discovered, and the king's dissolution of the monasteries overturns the customs and authorities of centuries. In the new world order, spies abound. Who can be trusted? For Brother Pacificus of the Abbey of St Benet's in Norfolk, it seems as if his Abbey alone will be spared. But this last Benedictine house is mired in murder and intrigue. When Pacificus is implicated, more than his own dark past comes to light, while the body count keeps rising. Pacificus' fate becomes entwined with that of three local children after their parents are arrested for treason and heresy. Protected only by this errant monk, a mysterious leper and a Dutch eel-catcher, the children must quickly adjust; seeking their own identity, they soon find that neither parents nor protectors are quite what they seem. Based on historical events, this post-medieval mystery is laced with romance, fuelled by greed and decorated with bouts of feasting, smuggling and jailbreak.