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: #82 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 463 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

Great mystery novel from the time of Henry VIII
This novels centres around a series of mysterious deaths that occur in a religious house during the time of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Although it is primarily of novel of detection it also explores in a very impressive way, many of the themes that surround the time including the corruption in the monsteries and some of the hardship surrounding the dissolution. I know that this is an excellent novel because I did not want it to end. The author evokes the time and place in which the story is set beautifully and draws some very interesting, complex and ultimately likeable characters indeed. I liked the fact that the author was balanced in his attitude to the period - neither the reformers nor the monk supporters are perfect. I much preferred the story to The Name of the Rose to which it can be compared. I found it more credible and more atmospheric. Not bad for a first novel. The investigator is a hunchback who works under the auspices of Thomas Cromwell but who finds himself questioning some of the methods the reformers use to carry out their tasks. He also has a young assistant who gets friendly with a young woman who works at the monastery - much to the hunchback's dissaproval and jealousy. All this adds to the story. I wholeheartedly recommend this to any lover of historical novels or mystery novels. It ranks very highly in both these categories. I am delighted to know that the author is going to write a sequel!

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.

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.