In the summer of 1586, when the Genoese banker Sandro Grandoni is murdered at a trade fair in the Castilian town of Medina del Campo, the Valladolid Chancery appoints the magistrate Bernardo de Mendoza to conduct the investigation.
The murder takes place at a delicate political moment. King Philip II is preparing to invade England, and the crown is negotiating a new loan with the House of Grandoni to help finance the invasion.
While the king and his ministers await the arrival of the imperial treasure fleet in Seville, one of Grandoni’s partners is murdered on the banks of the Guadalquivir.
Anxious to eliminate any obstacles to the ‘Enterprise of England’, Philip sends Mendoza to Seville to see if the murders are connected.
Accompanied by his restless ward Gabriel, and a charismatic poet named Miguel de Cervantes, Mendoza travels to the violent, vice-ridden imperial city that 16th-century Spaniards called ‘the Great Babylon.’
Mendoza soon finds himself entangled a bewildering web of intrigue and corruption that extends from the Indies to the Seville streets. In an unfamiliar city where no one can be trusted, Mendoza is forced to seek the assistance of his turbulent cousin, Luis de Ventura.
Mendoza’s task is further complicated when his lover Elena unexpectedly arrives in the city with an Italian theatre group.
Throughout the sweltering Andalucian summer, Mendoza follows the trail of deaths, as the search for justice becomes a struggle for survival, in which no one’s life is guaranteed.
The Emperor of Seville by Matthew Carr is published on 11 December, 2025.
Read Matthew’s Historia feature about crime and vice in 16th-century Seville.
If you’d like to see some more historical fiction, have a look at this list of over 110 books coming out in 2026.
