Dissolution is the first in the phenomenal Shardlake series by bestselling author,C. J. Sansom,followed by Dark Fire,Sovereign,Revelation, Heartstone and Lamentation.
It is 1537,a time of revolution that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country is waking up to savage new laws,rigged trials and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell,a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries are to be dissolved.
But on the Sussex coast,at the monastery of Scarnsea,events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's Commissioner Robin Singleton,has been found dead,his head severed from his body.
His horrific murder is accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege - a black cockerel sacrificed on the altar,and the disappearance of Scarnsea's Great Relic.
Dr Matthew Shardlake,lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform,has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death. But Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything he hears,and everything that he intrinsically believes . . .
Publisher: Pan MacmillanISBN: 9781447285830Number of pages: 480Weight: 340 gDimensions: 196 x 129 x 33 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
When it comes to intriguing Tudor-based narratives,Hilary Mantel has a serious rivalMatthew Shardlake combines engrossing historical detail with a first-rate murder mystery. A really satisfying page-turner.Sansom has a greater talent for animating period details than most of his contemporaries,his rendering of the Tudor winter in the first of the Shardlake series makes you reach for thick fleece blankets.Remarkable...The sights,the voices,the very smell of this turbulent age seem to rise from the page.Extraordinarily impressive. The best crime novel I have read this year.Terrific...a remarkable,imaginative feat. It is a first-rate murder mystery and one of the most atmospheric historical novels I've read in years.Terrific. Historical fiction at its finest.Dissolution is not just a fascinating detective story,but a convincing portrait of a turbulent period.I don't read historical novels any more - it's a busman's holiday - but I make an exception for C. J. Sansom's Shardlake books,which are set amid the uncertainties of the 16th-century Henrician Reformation.
C. J. Sansom
British author C. (Christopher) J. (John) Sansom is best known as the author of the phenomenally popular sixteenth-century detective series Shardlake. Dubbed the "Tudor Morse" the Shardlake novels - beginning with Dissolution - trace the progress of lawyer Matthew Shardlake from 1537 as he is drawn into investigating a series of complex cases that bring him ever-closer to the machinations of the Tudor court. C.J. Sansom is also the author of the bestselling novels Winter in Madrid and Dominion.
Visit the C. J. Sansom author page
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