'Remarkable' P. D. JAMESA stunning new voice in crime fictionHenry 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 alter, 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 . . .
Having never read C.J. Sansom, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. But a mystery set in Henry VIII’s England, with a middle-aged, hunchbacked lawyer at its center? Count me in!
The event that forms the background of the investigation is the systematic dissolution of Catholic monasteries throughout England. Shardlake is not only there to investigate his predecessor’s death, but to find a reason for Cromwell to dissolve the monastery and take its riches for the king.
Shardlake is not your usual investigator. He is not detached, or systematic. In fact, his feelings get very involved in his investigation. Especially troublesome are his feelings of envy of his protege and ward, young and handsome Mark. The investigation goes in many directions, sometimes too many, but the end result was satisfying.
I thought an interesting touch was the weather and terrain keeping the monastery very isolated from the politics that overwhelm most Tudor-era novels. It’s still a part of the backdrop, but not a part of the day-to-day workings.
