In 16th-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 Beatrice’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.
This 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.
Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle is published on 3 July, 2025.
Elizabeth has written about her search for this enigmatic woman and the conflicting accounts of what really happened to Beatrice.
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