Product Description

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 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 . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

The Guardian
'A mix of serious history and its political contect, together with first-rate murder mystery.'

About the Author

C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a Ph.D. in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Sussex.

Customer Reviews

Historically rooted, gripping story, a whodunnit with real verve
To begin with i thought this was just a pastiche of Eco's Name of the Rose: Monastery in winter, dodgy monks, murders and a beautiful young girl with an unusual detective plus honourable apprentice (even Aristotle's lost work On Comedy makes an appearance). But this is set a few centuries later and is firmly rooted in the Tudor terrors at the time of Dissolution of the Monasteries. National politics and the reformation are the sword of Damocles that hang over the monastery throughout. What is so exciting and satisfying is the way (rather like Eco did) that national politics and scandals are interwoven naturally into the goings on in this remote monastery on the South Coast. Henry VIII exists as an invisible presence throughout; the nearest we get to him is his ruthless and foul henchman, Thomas Cromwell. But his lethal authority and whims are stamped on every page.

The hero of the piece is Matthew Shardlake who finds himself having to do Cromwell's bidding. He is a believable character, idealistic but flawed, given to blindspots and jealousies - but he acknowledges all these, especially as he recognises that to have remained neutral could have helped find the culprits sooner and thus prevented more deaths.

This is a great read - and brings a dark chapter of England's history to life. There are no easy answers - and the rights and wrongs of the period are not so categorically stated that the reader is drawn inevitably to either 'papists' or 'reformers'. A tour de force.

Absorbing, exciting - a great book
I also bought this book on a whim in an airport - and was delighted to find a new author I hope to read much more of. The book itself is a great murder mystery - plenty of twists, without losing its credibility, and simply a superb story.

On top of this though, it's a great picture of a time of enormous change in England - although I knew the basics of the dissolution of the monasteries, this really brings everything to life, and although there is plenty of detail for those who like their history, it never becomes dry or boring.

Quite simply, this is one of the most gripping and readable books I've picked up for quite a while, and I'll be recommending it far and wide.

Muder in the Monastary
I'd had this book for a while, it was one I'd picked up in a publishers clearance shop. I thought it looked as if it might be OK to amuse myself for a few hours at some point. Now I have finally got around to reading it, I'm sorry I didn't read it before! It's well written, feels historically authentic and there are excellent characters and a really gripping mystery to boot! It's interesting that the 'hero', Commissioner Matthew Shardlake, is a hunchback and is sent to investigate the brutal murder of an official in a monastery, around about the time Henry VIII and Cromwell are starting to dissolve the monasteries, with the lesser ones already having gone. At this period, any physical impairment was seen as a judgement from God on that individual, so our hero has prejudice to struggle against on top of everything else! A really good read it put me a little in mind of Sharon Penman's Justin de Quincy books - highly recommended! Probably not for the squeamish though - it's a bit graphic in places.