Publisher's Weekly Review
Sansom's engrossing third historical featuring Matthew Shardlake (after 2005's Dark Fire) finds the hunchbacked barrister at the vortex of strife-torn Tudor England in the rainy autumn of 1541. Northern Britain anxiously awaits the arrival of the Great Progress taking Henry VIII and an entourage of thousands toward York to quell a fresh rebellion. Recently appointed a legal counsel for the Progress, Shardlake has a secret mission from Archbishop Cranmer to guarantee the safe return to London of imprisoned conspirator Sir Edward Broderick. With his trusted assistant, Jack Barak, Shardlake also investigates the death of master glazier Peter Oldroyd, a suspected papist, who fell from his ladder and was impaled on glass shards. Their search of Oldroyd's house reveals intriguing documents that question the royal line of succession and even impugn Henry. Despite complex court politics and several attempts on his life, Shardlake stalwartly maintains his integrity while searching for truth amid the "vipers' nest" of Henry's court. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The third installment in the author's historical mystery series featuring Matthew Shardlake whisks dedicated readers (note the book's length) off to the north of England--the city of York, to be specific--as the city prepares for its turn to host King Henry VIII's progress through the northern regions of his kingdom, the purpose of which is to settle local legal disputes. Shardlake, one smart guy, is a London lawyer who has, this time out, been appointed to travel to York to help prepare cases for presentation before His Majesty. The king's chief minister, Archbishop Cramner, has also employed Shardlake for another task: to ensure the safekeeping of a man currently imprisoned in York, charged with conspiracy against the crown, and make certain he is kept well enough for removal to London for further interrogation. And once in York, a third task falls upon our man Shardlake. Atmosphere abounds in this marvelously drawn novel, which essentially is all about conspiracies to unseat King Henry, centered on resistance to his dynasty and his Protestantism, which were both unpopular in the North. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2007 Booklist
Guardian Review
The good news is that this is the best detective story I've read since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ; the bad news is that it's the third of a trilogy and the first two books are not in audio. Imagine meeting John Rebus for the first time in The Resurrection Men . Fortunately, CJ Sansom's devilishly ingenious whodunit, set in 1541 with England bitterly divided over Henry VIII's schism with Rome, can be read independently, even though we've missed out on certain developments in his sleuth Matthew Shardlake's career. Shardlake is a hunchbacked Lincoln's Inn lawyer dispatched by Thomas Cranmer to York to escort a prisoner back to the Tower of London for "questioning". Sansom's description of the brutality of Tudor life is strong stuff, but he is a master storyteller. Caption: article-audio14.2 The good news is that this is the best detective story I've read since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd ; the bad news is that it's the third of a trilogy and the first two books are not in audio. Imagine meeting John Rebus for the first time in The Resurrection Men . - Sue Arnold.
Kirkus Review
Renaissance barrister Matthew Shardlake joins Henry VIII's mammoth progress to the rebellious North on a mission from the wily Cardinal Cranmer. In the rainy autumn of 1541, in the city of York, clever, upwardly mobile, hunchback lawyer Shardlake and his trusty Jewish clerk Jack Barak slog through trackless forests with orders to protect an imprisoned rebel from his sadistic jailer. Cardinal Cranmer wants the prisoner brought back alive to London where he can be properly tortured for information about a recent conspiracy to unseat the once-glorious monarch, now obese and limping and on his fifth wife. The gloomy city is seething with resentment as Henry's gigantic entourage approaches. Advance forces have taken over desecrated monasteries to house the thousands of soldiers, lawyers, courtiers, caterers and whores comprising the royal progress, and the Yorkers hate them all. Shardlake quickly stumbles onto the grisly murder of a glazier with ties to the rebellion and then himself becomes the victim of a string of attacks when he finds that the victim was guarding an old jewelry box containing documents that could blow the Tudor succession to bits. He's knocked unconscious before he can read the papers, which quickly vanish, but someone thinks he knows enough to make him a danger. Shardlake has to elude the murderers, avoid his arch-enemy Sir Richard Rich and stay out of the way of the grumpy monarch, whose frisky, much younger wife, Catherine Howard, may be involved in a fatal flirtation. While Jack dallies with a pretty servant from Queen Catherine's retinue, Shardlake gets assistance in his inquiries from a kindly old colleague who knows more about the conspiracy than he lets on. As always, former lawyer Sansom (Dark Fire, 2005, etc.) fleshes out the detection with rich historic details presented at a stately pace. Highly intelligent entertainment. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
