From the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger recipient C. J. Sansom, the highly anticipated new novel in his acclaimed Shardlake series of Tudor mysteries, which have sold two million copies around the world.
Autumn, 1552. England is, uneasily, at peace. King Edward VI, now fifteen and mature beyond his years, is already beginning to play an active part in politics. His sister, the Lady Elizabeth, now nineteen, is a prominent figure at court. Edward’s heir, however, is his elder sister Mary. Having refused to renounce her Catholicism in Edward’s increasingly strident Protestant England, she lives in Essex, an unseen but worrying presence.
Matthew Shardlake has returned to practising law, including matters involving the properties of Elizabeth. A shadow hangs over him, however; he has fallen deeply in love with Liz Partlett, nurse to his adopted daughter Mousey—a love that is reciprocated although Liz, haunted by grim events, feels she can never marry him.
As colonization and the slave trade dominate world affairs, a group of English merchants, desperate to find new trading opportunities, sets up a Company of Merchant Adventurers to seek a north-east passage to the Far East. The destination of the projected voyage is kept strictly secret lest Spanish spies should learn of it. After the secretary of the Company suddenly dies, Shardlake is recruited to the post as a competent man who can be trusted to keep matters secret.
Meanwhile a crumbling house by the Thames suddenly collapses, killing several tenants. Shardlake discovers that responsibility for the disaster devolves on the ultimate owner of the land, the Lady Elizabeth. At the site, Shardlake makes a gruesome discovery in the intact remains of the cellar: a torture chamber, and the hideously disfigured body of a Portuguese man.
Shardlake finds himself caught up in a world of spies and double-agents, and discovers that his predecessor as Secretary of the Merchant Adventurers was murdered. He must investigate, and quickly, for the date when the ships must set sail to catch the Arctic spring of 1553 is fast approaching. Rumours begin to circulate that King Edward has fallen sick, and may be dying...
- ISBN10 1039004458
- ISBN13 9781039004450
- Publish Date 29 August 2023
- Publish Status Inactive
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint Random House Canada
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 624
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9781039004450