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| Shardlake Book 6 PanMacmillan 2014 |
The latter days of the reign of
Henry VIII are overshadowed by political and religious strife. No one who
has any religious conviction feels safe to worship any religion other than that which is dictated by the King. For Queen Catherine Parr, Henry’s
last stoical Protestant Queen, there are forces at work who would like to see
nothing more than her downfall. When the Queen’s highly controversial confessional book goes
missing, Shardlake is enlisted to track down the book on the pretext of looking
for a missing jewel. Should anyone discover the real reason for Shardlake’s
investigation, then the Queen, and all who are associated with her will be
brought down.
Sansom writes about the Tudor age
with great conviction, and allows Shardlake, as always, to take centre stage. The
superb attention to detail, from the closeted elegance of the Tudor Court, through
to the raggle-taggle print works in Paternoster Row, takes the reader on a
journey through the vagaries of life in London during 1546. The noise, the
stink, the sheer perversity of living alongside cut purses and murderers, as
well as the stirrings of religious mania gives Shardlake one of his most
complicated investigations. It’s a real joy to watch the pernickety lawyer and
his dastardly sidekick, Jack Barak, go about solving such a convoluted murder
mystery.
It’s a hefty read, well over 600
pages, filled with the usual subplots, red herrings and dangerous subterfuges, and if I have to be a little bit picky, I would say that its about 200 pages
overlong, however, having said that, the story flows well; the political and
religious turmoil is written about with great authority and the portrait painted
of the failing Henry VIII, is both poignant and terrifying in equal measure.
I can’t see any time soon when
Sansom’s legions of fans don’t demand another Shardlake adventure. The ending of this one certainly lends itself to a continuation and I for one, can’t wait to see where Shardlake's story
goes next.
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