Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-04
• Binding: Hardcover
• 452 pages

Material Witness
'Revelation is crime-writing at its finest and historical fiction at its most sumptuous...'

The Times
'Sansom's deft sense of dramatic timing takes us effortlessly through this fat, juicy book...'

Radio 4's Front Row
'If this isn't the best crime novel of the year, then we're going to have a great year.'

Customer Reviews

SUPERB..................................
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 and there is the odd printing error, however, it is a cracking good yarn. The characters are interesting and well developed, and frankly, I found it difficult to put down.
The book ends at the time of Henry VIII's sixth marriage, and 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, and read on from there, but each book stands quite well on its own.
This is a super book and I would certainly read it again.

NOT A SPOILER!!!! Fantastic return from Mr Sansom!
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 and this time the killings are more gruesome than ever!!! the plot and characters leave you guessing who did it until they're revealed but that could just be me. fantastic read and 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
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 overall. You certainly want to get to the end, and the characters are generally well drawn and involving.
What's really annoying is that the anachronisms and 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 generally 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 comically Blackadderish ('well, young Bob, you're a sporty young feller and 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 and 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 eventually found, said large item is found there. How?
Seems the author forgot the killer had already legged it and 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 commercially 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 and 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.