I have long been a fan of C J Sansom’s Shardlake series. I read Dissolution when it was first published and have more recently listened to the Radio 4 adaptation which reminded me of what I had so loved about it. The character of Shardlake is so well drawn that it’s easy to admire him for his intelligence and stoicism and to have a big dose of sympathy for the way he is treated for his appearance.
Sansom has created a world with which it is easy to become engrossed. The community at Scarnsea is a believable place, filled with interesting (although not always likeable) characters, notably the medic Guy who is featured in the later novels. The monastery and surrounding foggy marshes are a vivid creation that makes me shiver just to recall it.
It seems hard to believe that it’s 15 years since Dissolution was published. I’m really looking forward to reading the latest instalment, Tombland.

Dissolution, C. J. Sansom

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery and thrillers

I love this period in history, so much change going on in politics, state and religion. I've read many. many books, and the ones I love best are always like this, ones that make me feel I'm there, among the events, not just a reader but actually in the thick of what's happening.
I've read most of the Shardlake series over the years, but in print form. They are among those I'd read over and over, but sadly all my print books had to go a few years back ( around 2k of them) as eye issues meant I couldn't read them. Thank heavens for Kindle with its changing font size and background lighting.

So seeing this offered for review reminded me of how much I loved this series. Matthew Shardlake is a great lead character, he's a very moral person, strongly in favour of reform but somehow naïve considering his profession.
He's sent down to Scarnsea where the Commissioner investigating the monastery there has been murdered.
Its winter, the journey is hard, the welcome by the monks edges on suspicion. After all they knew the murdered man had come looking for excuses to shut them down but murder? Everyone is on edge, everyone seems to hold secrets, have possible motives and its Matthews job to tease them out and find the truth.
He's accompanied by Mark Poer, a young man who's been under his wing so to speak, working in Augmentations. Mark doesn't like what he's seen, and Matthew thinks he's exaggerating, maybe its the hard work, the hours or something, or of course the fact his dalliance with a lady way above him was caught, he can't believe Marks is right in what he sees happening. He's promised Mark's father to set him on the road to a good career, and he's determined to do his best for Mark, not what he wants necessarily, but what he needs. That sounds harsh but its how life was then, a scrabble to survive and Matthew knows Mark could well end up one of the poor they see so often, in rags, no home, depending on charity for the few scraps of food that keep them alive.

The mystery surrounding the killer is difficult and tangled, no-one seems to have a motive, but several of the inhabitants of the monastery have the opportunity. Commissioner Singleton had been going to meet a monk, though no-one knows who, but the abbot and the monks are keen to believe it must have been an intruder that killed him. The more Matthew learns about the events surrounding the murder the wider the circle seems to get, and then things become even more dangerous.
I love that there are so many suspects, I've just decided on one as the culprit along with Matthew, when something happens to throw doubt on them, and this happens over and over.
There are so many secrets, so much going on here in this time of change for everyone. No-one feels safe, no-one actually is safe. Even stray words at the wrong time are enough to condemn someone so everyone is very guarded and that doesn't help the investigation.

Poor Matthew gets his eyes really opened here by events surrounding Cromwell, a man he fervently believes in and admires. He learns his idol has feet of clay and is shocked, really shocked that he could be so casually callous about certain recent events. The force of what's going on though has become uncontrollable, and Matthew isn't in a position to do anything about it. I really feel for him, a good man in a position that puts him front and centre of the change he wanted but which isn't having the results those like him intended. .

It was easy to feel as if I was back in the 1500's with Matthew. Often its the little details, the snippets of real history, the day to day events, the food and clothes, the poverty, all those make a book feel very real. CJ Sansom has a real talent for those, for bringing the reader into the story by making the setting so vividly real. For throwing out little clues that send the reader on false tracks, often along with Matthew, for keeping the events wide open to very near the end, and keeping reader guessing who is behind things, and why of course. Rarely does murder happen without motive.

Stars: Five, a solidly written mystery/suspense that I enjoyed reading once more and I think its time for a reread of all of the novels.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and Publishers

I LOVE THIS SERIES .. I noticed a new one (Tombstone) after a gap having read most of the earlier ones, and then picked up this earlier volumes which I had missed! He's younger here, less callous, not in the higher positions he will attain . But in midst of chaos of Tudor life his humanity and close observational skills work well - in this one a murder in a monastery along with extended consternation of Cromwell's dicta to strip them and close them... it wreaks havoc on more sensitive terrified monks! One in particular stand out .. and murders pulled up! He sorts it though. ..

If you like a mystery then this book is for you. Set during the 16th century during the dissolution (as the title suggests) the main character of the book has been set a task by Cromwell. Shardlake is sent to a crumbling monastery to investigate a murder.
This book is well written and gripping, I found it difficult to put down. I look forward to reading the next book with this character in it.

If you like historic history, then this book is for you.
It brings the everyone to life. In my opinion you need to read this first as it makes more continuation along the rest of the series.
Love the attention to detail and capture Tudor England and the monesties at the time.

<i> Thank you NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the free copy</i>

On the occasion of the 7th instalment in the Shardlake series (Tombland) being published, I received the first one to get acquainted.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely seek out the rest of the series.

Set in 1537 against the backdrop of Henry VIII/Cromwell/dying queens/reformation, lawyer and commissioner Matthew Shardlake is sent to the Scarnsea monastery to investigate the murder of another commissioner who was there to coax the monks into 'voluntary' dissolution.

Shardlake is a flesh-and-blood character, the atmosphere is real with a lot of snow, water and cold stone walls, and religion, politics and sex mingle in a juicy swamp. Throughout the investigation there are many leads, red herrings, nobody’s above suspicion and good and evil are not black and white. As a reader you are invited to actively sleuth along and despite being a first person narrator Shardlake sometimes doesn’t tell you everything he knows, building the suspense even further.

I will definitely seek out the rest of the series and I hope that Guy of Malton will surface again in one of the sequels.

When I initially started reading this book I did have an idea of author but not what style Sansom wrote in. I had read historical fiction previously and enjoyed them so this was no exception. The book sets itself in the time of Henry VIII (my favourite time period) and our lead, a hunchback lawyer called Matthew Shardlake is requested by Cromwell to investigate the murder of a commissioner sent to close a monastery in Scarnsea. Matthew along with his aide Mark Poer go into the monastery with the belief this will be a simple case. It turned out not to be with twists and turns showing itself and leading not to one death but several. This book covers a range of topics from murder to greed and abuse of power. Initially the book took its time to grip me but once it did I enjoyed the story. I became emotionally attached to Matthew and Mark, and also to Brother Guy and Alice. The book had me guessing to the end and the sadness that shines though the dialogue towards the end is for so many things, the loss of life, and the way of life definitely shows. I felt bereft at the end so much so that I have already bought the next in the series!

Good story if rather long winded! Shardlake makes a good but fallible lead character, while the details of how confessions were wrought from innocents during Henry VIII’s reign makes one angry.

Brilliant Tudor mystery. Compelling lead character, well populated universe and clear, deep, understanding of the Tudor mileu and mores.

Fantastic storytelling and gripping plot. Matthew Shardlake is a great detective character - sufficient flaws but someone who we can really empathise with. The story is a great insight into the church history of the English Reformation and a great place to start with this fascinating period of English History.

So, I didn't actually need this book because I already have this book. I have all the Shardlake books - in fact all the CJ Sansom books - some of them in huge hard to carry let alone read in the bath hardbacks. What I meant to do in fat fingered, fumbling, over eager style was wish for the new one because it's been a LONG time since there was a new Shardlake book and I was far too excited to read the email properly and click on the right button.

But that clumsy excitement speaks for itself. The Shardlake books are a wonderful series, combining twisty thrillers with an incredible sense of place. No one bring Tudor Britain alive in the same way - not just the smells and the food and the social history but the sheer, never ending terror of living in a time when thinking or worshipping differently meant torture and potential agonising death, and yet the goalposts of what was acceptable to think and how to worship moved with the whims of the king. Terrifying for ordinary people, a whole new level of fear for those unlucky enough to move in courtly circles or who catch the eye of those who do. Henry's capriciousness, his unpleasant, bullying, paranoid behaviour, courtly plots and doomed, desperate queens are all made real on the page as Shardlake, equally doomed by his misshapen body and intellect, is unwillingly pulled into the games of those who wish to shape England.

Dissolution, the first in the series, sets the tone perfectly, bringing the chaos, greed and profiteering around the dissolution of the monasteries vividly to life alongside a compelling murder mystery. If you haven't read this series then you are in for a real treat. And if like me you are waiting impatiently for the latest installment then you know exactly what an amazing achievement these books are.

This is a really good story. The characters are well-rounded, the story feels very real and is an honest and interesting portrayal of life in Tudor England during the reign of Henry Vlll. Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer, working for Thomas Cromwell. He is a hunchback and people tend to shy away from him, he is quite a lonely man. He was educated by monks who were quite cruel, turning him against the Catholic Church so he is a good convert to the new church with King Henry at its head. Matthew trusts and admires Thomas Cromwell at the start of the book, believing him to be an honest and fair man, he is proud to work for him. As the story progresses though, he hears stories about Cromwell that he naively thinks are untrue, but on a quick visit back to London to report on the current state of his enquiry and to try and find out who owns a sword he discovered in the Abbey fishpond, Cromwell confirms the stories are correct.

Matthew is disillusioned, but is a conscientious man, determined to complete the task for which he was commissioned. As a result of his failing to bring the killer to justice he loses Cromwell's patronage, not a bad thing in that cruel and savage time. He still works for Cromwell, and carries out a further mission for him in the second book of the series, Dark Fire.

This book is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys historical novels.

I very much enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading more by this author. Definitely recommended.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan for a digital copy of the first in the Matthew Shardlake series ahead of the publication of the final book, ‘Tombland’.

This was my third reading of ‘Dissolution’ and I totally enjoyed revisiting the original in its claustrophobic setting. A real triumph that remains fresh. My reading of the series was interrupted by vision problems (though i own them) and this reread encouraged me to catch up via ebooks so I can read ‘Tombland’ soon.

C. J. Sansom is a fine historical novelist who can set a variety of books in a fine variety of places. With Tombland just over the horizon, going back to the beginning seemed like a good idea, and it is. Matthew Shardlake is a narrator to keep one awake at night, even when one knows what's to come. Among the surprises come a series of characters one wouldn't expect, such as the doctor, the Carthusian, the hard-riding Abbot, women and children, and the geography of the great monastery itself, as Shardlake looks over the marshes toward the sea. Jane Seymour has recently died in childbirth, and the king's search for a wife begins again.

Shardlake himself suffers from what we would now call scoliosis, which makes him a poster boy for disability. He is irascible, short-tempered, prone to take his own word rather too quickly, and that includes (in this first book) a belief in Thomas Cromwell that shows the weakness of his admiration for a monster. I had forgotten that the king does not appear in this first book (he is the eponymous character of Sovereign). More heart-wrenching is Shardlake's search for a mate, which he knows to be unlikely, but continues to offer a love no one cares for. Historical fictions have always used the past to examine present concerns; the challenge is to keep the past remote. Henry’s ill-judged and financially catastrophic decision to crush France raises timely questions about just wars, as well as about greedy and unjust governors. Before Sansom turned to the law, he did a doctorate in history; his research is well grounded and teaches while delighting the reader, though he has not overcome the historical novelist’s tendency to over-description. He avoids cod-Elizabethan English, using slightly stylized formal speech with the occasional period oath. The use of a first-person narrator hobbles the specificities of other characters as well as restricting self-analysis. We only ever see inside Matthew, and while he is not an unreliable narrator, he is a limited one. Sansom wants to look at questions of violence, including rape; ecology and bad husbandry; but especially of stewardship, good and bad.

At least with Tombland to come we can be certain that the dying monarch will soon be beyond reach, and beyond the ability to reign. I was reminded of Jasper Ridley's biography of Henry, who he came to hate in the course of writing his book. All his hatred of the monstrous Tudor was summed up in his last sentence: 'He was always the tall, jovial bon vivant, with his zest for life, his love of music and the company of ladies, and his cruel, piggy eyes'.

This is the first volume in a historical crime series centred around disfigured lawyer Matthew Shardlake.in the era of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.. Cromwell has sent commissioners to investigate the monasteries and dissolution follows. At the Scarnsea monastery one of Cromwell's commissioners has been found dead and Shardlake is sent to investigate.

The descriptions of a different era are wonderfully evocative. I'm not sure I remember another book which immersed me so successfully in the sights, sounds, smells, environment and general chaos of a time of such upheaval. It took me awhile to get into the ebb and flow of the writing but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the characters are well drawn and there is enough intrigue to satisfy the most demanding of readers.

This is the first novel I've read by C J Sansom and I will look forward to diving into the second in the series called Dark Fire. I've checked some reviews of books further in the series and they mostly indicate that the standard is maintained. I look forward to checking more out. Thoroughly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan for a digital copy for review purposes.

As a new convert to Historical Fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed this book set during the time of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. 


Matthew Shardlake is a disabled lawyer, sent by Thomas Cromwell to investigate a death at a monastery. 
What follows is a compelling and atmospheric tale where treachery and death are rife. CJ Sansom has spectacularly brought Tudor England to life, with a perfect mix of historical fact and page turning fiction.

I will definitely be reading the other books in the Shardlake series.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was the first historical whodunnit that I had ever read, believing that history and in particular, the Tudor period, held no interest for me. However, I was hooked within the first few pages.
Tudor life, especially the religious turmoil of the time is brought vividly to life. Small details make the reader feel like they know the period intimately. The main character is somewhat of an anti hero and does have his failings but we cheer him on to a successful conclusion due to his innate sense of justice.
I most enjoyed getting an insight into seeming chaos of the time, orchestrated by Henry VIIIth and Cromwell. My least favourite part was the slightly pathetic game played out between Shardlake and his assistant over a girl they had just met. But times were different then, perhaps this was common!
I have since gone on to read the next five in the Shardlake series as well and eagerly await the arrival of the seventh.
I thank Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to review it.

Fascinating murder set in the time of Henry VIII covering the dissolution of a monastery in East Sussex at Scarnsea. The monks are varied and human and the commissioner sent by Thomas Cromwell a little niaive to say the least.

From the desecration of the church, theft of a relic and the murder of a couple of innocents, a lot happens in a snowy winter in the monastery. This is the first book in a series by C J Sansom, I'll be looking to read more of them.

A rich and charming opening to a historical fiction series. This is a must for anyone who likes the genre, those who love the Tudors in particular.