Sinners

An electrifying retelling from Elizabeth Fremantle - the fierce and fearless story of Beatrice Cenci: prisoner, rebel, saint… or sinner?

In sixteenth-century Rome, Beatrice Cenci – youngest daughter of a powerful nobleman – is destined for a life of gilded insignificance. Wealth talks within the city’s grand palazzos, and women must remain silent.

Then her brother is found murdered by a rival family, and Beatice’s domineering, tyrannical father insists they flee to La Rocca.

But La Rocca, an ancient and forbidding fortified castle perched on a cliff, is no sanctuary. The villagers are suspicious of the newcomers, considering their arrival an ill omen. Mysterious and terrible events begin to occur within the castle walls even as Beatrice's father’s paranoia grows.

Isolated and afraid, she befriends the castle's keeper, Olimpio.

Yet their secret attraction is dangerous. Were their affair to be discovered, neither might survive. And betrayal lurks behind every corner. In desperation Beatrice devises a plan, one that will see her risk everything for an even greater love . . .

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Sinners is the story of a trapped woman determined to live a free life, no matter the cost.

Because for Beatrice Cenci – saint, sinner, hunter, prey – a woman caged is a terrible thing.

‘An evocative tale of misplaced love and lust … A gripping read which gallops to a crescendo of an ending’ Melanie Cantor

‘A sensationally powerful novel with a rollercoaster of a story that has the dark logic of Greek tragedy’ Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Ashes of London

‘Fremantle never misses. Sinners is a fierce and searing feminist retelling of Beatrice Cenci’s life and murder trial’ Flora Carr, author of The Tower