These Wicked Devices

THE HOLY CITY IS NO PLACE FOR MERCY 'Matthew Plampin should rank with the best' Sunday Times 'Plampin is heartbreakingly good' The Times 'Gripping, immersive, at times very funny and beautifully written, this is historical fiction of the highest quality' Elizabeth Fremantle Rome, 1650. The streets are teeming as thousands of pilgrims flood in for the Holy Jubilee, but behind the gilded façade of the Vatican, power is unravelling. Donna Olimpia Maidalchini has long kept Pope Innocent X under her thumb, but as loyalties shift, her enemies close in. And her most dangerous opponents may be those she deems too weak to matter. Two destitute nuns arrive, fleeing the ruined city of Castro and each carrying secrets that could destroy them. Meanwhile, the assistant to the famed Spanish artist Diego Velázquez is drawn into a perilous conspiracy – one that could bring Italy to its knees, and against which his own desperate ambitions seem to count for nothing. As the sweltering summer heat rises, survival, not salvation, becomes the ultimate goal – and in this world of sin, saints almost never survive.Author: Plampin, Matthew,author
Contributors: Plampin, Matthew,author
Binding: paperback
Publication Date:
Release Date:
Languages: English,Published,English,Original Language,Englis
Published/Release Date: 7 May 2026
Bic Classification: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Classic fiction (pre c 1945), Historical fiction, Fiction: special features
bicCode:
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher/Studio/Brand: Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Imprint: The Borough Press
Author/Director/Artist: Matthew Plampin
Dimension (cm): 198x129x26 mm
Package Dimension (cm): 25x196x129 mm
Item Weight (g): 268
Package Weight (g): 235