My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another splendid adventure for Matthew Shardlake. This time it is 1541 and he is on a mission for Thomas Cramer, the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. Sharlake the lawyer from London's Lincoln's Inn must travel to York with his trusted accomplice and minder Jack Barak. Their recent employer Thomas Cromwell is dead. Beheaded by King Henry VIII because of his mistake concerning the marriage match to Anne of Cleeves.
The North of England is more Catholic in its leaning and does not take easily to Protestant Reformation. There has been an uprising and this was viciously put down by King Henry VIII.
It is into this festering atmosphere of hate and resentment, that Shardlake must go. He is to oversee the safety of a conspirator. An enemy of the King and Reformation. This Catholic prisoner must be transported back to London and the Tower were the more skilled interrogators (Torturers) can work upon extracting information.
The King is also making a stately visit to York with his new wife, Katherine Howard. Before long Matthew Shardlake is in over his head where high society murder, intrigue and corruption is concerned. Plus a person intent on murder is stalking him.
I'm fast becoming hooked on these Shardlake novels by C.J. Sansom. Each one has the ability to take the reader to old-world England during the reign of the tyrant King Henry VIII. Splendid stuff, all the way.
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