Customer Reviews
SUPERB.................................. - By: L. Hay, 07 May 2008 
An excellent contribution to the Matthew Shardlake Saga. The bodies drop in rapid succession, the murderer inspired by the Book of Revelations.
A lengthy book, it is sometimes repetitive & there is the odd printing error, however, it is a cracking good yarn. The characters are interesting & well developed, & frankly, I found it difficult to put down.
The book ends at the time of Henry VIII's sixth marriage, & I am hoping that Mr Sansom will continue with this marvellous series.
Readers would be advised to start with "Dissolution" the first of the saga, & read on from there, but each book stands quite well on its own.
This is a super book & I would certainly read it again.
NOT A SPOILER!!!! Fantastic return from Mr Sansom! - By: Sam Nicholl, 03 May 2008 fantastic return to form. this book continues the story of our hero Shardlake on his fourth adventure. it doesnt take long for the action to begin & this time the killings are more gruesome than ever!!! the plot & characters leave you guessing who did it until they're revealed but that could just be me. fantastic read & a nice gruesome depiction of england at it's most turbulent time!!!(less importantly of course)but very nice looking book as well!
A gripping read - but annoyingly error-strewn - By: R. Lloyd, 24 Apr 2008 
I think this is a big improvement over 'Sovereign', which I found very laboured.
There's no doubt this is a gripping read, even though it's a rather improbable Tudor serial killer story. Once again, it was also pretty easy to work out mid-way through whodunnit - think Mr Sansom needs to get a bit better at keeping us guessing, but this doesn't detract from the read overalll. You certainly want to get to the end, & the characters are generallly well drawn & involving.
What's reallly annoying is that the anachronisms & silly errors persist from the earlier books in the series.
At one point, Shardlake (the hero) describes the killer as 'a sadist'. How can a Tudor person 250 years before de Sade, possibly use the term 'a sadist'? It just spoils the otherwise generallly authentic flavour.
Someone else (Sir Thomas Seymour, a rather pantomimic figure) describes the type of young man he favours in his household as 'sporty'. This is just so comicallly Blackadderish ('well, young Bob, you're a sporty young feller & no mistake') that it screams inauthenticity.
These occasional gaffes take the shine off what should otherwise be a well written novel.
Worse still are major plot bungles: at one point, the killer is nearly apprehended & has to abandon something - a very large item - I won't spoil it by saying what - in the street. And yet several chapters later, when the killer's lair is eventuallly found, said large item is found there. How?
Seems the author forgot the killer had already legged it & abandoned the item concerned in the street several chapters earlier.
There were similar boo-boos in the previous books. Are these down to the author, or to lazy, over-hasty editing?
Or are these books, clearly commerciallly successful, just getting churned out a little too fast?
It's a shame, because these could be great books. As it is, they're are undeniably enjoyable, but spoiled by odd little mistakes & a lack of attention to detail. A good read nonetheless, but I wish Mr Sansom's editor would raise his or her game a bit.
Entertaining, educational escapism - By: Cazzandra, 24 Apr 2008 They don't sound like Tudor people & some of their attitudes are very obviously 21st century but the detail is cleverly done & the plots hang together. Sansom is good at creating characters that are believable & fixing the story firmly in the politics of the time; there is no doubt about it, the series is a very entertaining one which has been scrupulously researched. In any case, having studied Tudor literature, I am very certain that if they sounded Tudor the books would be unreadable.
Out of the four novels so far (and I hope there are more) this is probably the most interesting & harrowing. I found `Sovereign' a little thin plotwise but whatever was lacking there is made up for here. This has a strong sense of direction towards the final denouement. I worked out who the serial killer had to be very early on (I'm afraid I've worked out every story so far; I'm irritating like that) so it was amusing to watch Matthew graduallly catch up with me but perhaps it was easier for me because he knew by then who the killer is & left sufficient clues - perhaps unconsciously (see how believable it is).
I can recommend the series. Matthew is not a detective who gets things right alll the time, he has faults & flaws & a bad temper but it is the fact that he isn't perfect that makes him so appealing & realistic. What is appealing too is that the waifs & strays he picks up along the way are woven into the history. He has developed a better relationship with the horse Genesis who in `Dark Fire' he complains about as having not much of a personality but by `Sovereign' the horse is clearly pleased to see him. By now, Matthew has learned to appreciate his strength & sees him as a friend. Guy too has developed & is graduallly becoming a more accepted part of the community.
Matthew doesn't have much luck with women though & I wonder if Sansom will relent & give him a break. The poor guy seems to have very little going for him & as each novel appears he seems to become more & more physicallly frail. Again, given that each novel has a space of a year or more between them in Matthew's life, this is well captured by Sansom.
I very rarely read novels these days, preferring fact so I'm choosey about what I spend my time on. But I have to say, this is an author I look out for. His books are fun, pure escapism & some history along the way so that even whilst I'm being entertained , I can pick up some facts along the way.
I read the novels in order & I recommend doing that if you want to get the impact of the characterisation but in fact each of the novels stands very well alone & Sansom explains sufficient of his background for a reader to start the series anywhere. Highly recommended.
This book is educational but highly entertaining and engaging. - By: K. Warren, 23 Apr 2008 I am absolutely hooked on the Shardlake novels by C J Sansom. Being born in 1977, my state education did not seem to see it fit to teach me anything of Tudor England, I therefore feel shamefully ignorant over my own country's political/social history & are lazily filling in the gaps about the Tudors by reading novels like this! I'm reliably informed by the author himself that he has researched the novel with historical accuracy wherever possible..that's good enough for me.
I am of the view that these novels get better & better. Sansom manages to weave breathtakingly 3 dimensional descriptions into his prose without you ever thinking "here we go i am now reading a huge paragraph of description about this scene." It feels like I am following Shardlake around the whole time & that he is sharing alll his thoughts & worries with me; this suits me down to the the ground I am a 'people person' & feel privileged to be let in on their inner most thoughts & understanding what makes them tick.
Sanom's use of part of the prophecy of revelation in the book (don't want to give too much away for those who haven't read it) is a stroke of genius as it also alllows the author to explore the climate of Christian views at the time both of the domineering "religious leaders"and the ordinary folk of the day which then had a profound influence on both peoples mind sets, attitudes & relationships. It is here that we reallly feel for Matthew as he struggles in his personal relationship with God & has to deal on a professional capacity with people with fervent views of a certain stance in the biblical understanding of Christianity.
I would recommend this book for anyone but especiallly folks like me with poor knowledge of Tudor England & for those interested in biblical theology as it helps us in some way understand how the bible was interpreted & used at this time in history.
