The mystery is cleverly woven, and slowly building tension will keep readers involved until the denouement.Ī retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch. Shardlake’s fourth adventure is packed with fascinating historical detail and contemporary lessons. The battle between religious fanatics and the dangerous courtly intrigue nearly overwhelms the clever lawyer’s considerable skills. The chief suspect is a doctor and former monk who Harsnet thinks is possessed by the devil and the others think is mad. At length he realizes that the horrific crimes are based upon events in the Book of Revelation.

Because the political implications of the unfolding series of murders could damage the Protestant cause, Shardlake, aided by his Jewish assistant Jack Barak and a clever Moorish doctor, agrees to help solve the mystery. When his friend is found in a fountain with his throat slit, Matthew is furious that the courts and assistant coroner Harsnet have stonewalled until Harsnet reveals that Archbishop Cranmer is behind a cover-up. London is in turmoil as Henry drifts toward a popeless Catholicism while the Protestant faction at court plot to maintain their power. A sickly king is seeking to add Catherine Parr to his roster of wives.

It’s 1543, and hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, a serjeant in the Court of Requests, is carefully avoiding any political involvement that could lead to the type of trouble he’s narrowly escaped in the past ( Sovereign, 2007). When a lawyer’s friend is murdered in Henry VIII’s England, he vows to solve the crime. As London's Bishop Bonner prepares a purge of Protestants Shardlake, together with his assistant, Jack Barak, and his friend, Guy Malton, investigate a series of horrific murders which are already bringing frenzied talk of witchcraft and demonic possession - for what else would the Tudor mind make of a serial killer. His search leads him to Cranmer and Catherine Parr - and to the dark prophecies of the Book of Revelation. When an old friend is horrifically murdered Shardlake vows to bring the killer to justice. Matthew Shardlake, meanwhile, is working on the case of a teenage boy who has been placed in the Bedlam insane asylum, before his terrifying religious mania leads to him being burned as a heretic. Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies. King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife.

Sansom's bestselling adventures of Matthew Shardlake continue in the fourth title in the series, the haunting Revelation.

Revelation cj sansom book review