Overview

As Henry VIII lies on his deathbed, an incendiary manuscript threatens to tear his court apart in the new installment of C. J. Sansom's Shardlake series. Autumn, 1546. King Henry VIII is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councilors prepare for a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government. The Catholics decide to focus their attack on Henry's sixth wife, the Protestant Queen Catherine Parr. As Catherine begins to lose the king's favor, she turns to the shrewd, hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake to contain a potentially fatal secret. The queen has written a confessional book, Lamentation of a Sinner, a memoir so radical that if it came to the king's attention, it could bring her and her courtly sympathizers to ruination. The London printer into whose hands she entrusted the manuscript has been murdered, the book nowhere to be found. Shardlake's investigations take him down a trail that begins among printshops in the filthy backstreets of London but leads him once more to the labyrinthine world of court politics, where Protestant friends can be as dangerous as Catholic enemies-and those who will support either side to further their ambition are the most dangerous of all.

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9781478958666

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Reviews

"A richly entertaining and scholarly series. History never seemed so real.-- ""New York Times Book Review"" Among the most distinguished of modern historical novelists.-- ""P.D. James"" One of my favorite writers.-- ""Kate Atkinson"" Sansom brings alive all levels of English society, from cutthroats and common soldiers to the king and queen themselves.-- ""Washington Post"" Sansom has an unerring sense of pace and a deft historical touch.-- ""The New Yorker"" Sansom offers a master class in royal intrigue-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" Sansom seems to have born with, or instinctively acquired, that precious balance of creativity and research, history and humanity.-- ""Chicago Tribune"" Brilliantly sketched [with] Shakespearean characterization and Byzantine plotting: amid all the stink and muck of Tudor London, Sansom offers a master class in royal intrigue. -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" Everything works in Sansom's superb sixth Matthew Shardlake novel: the murder mystery with grave political ramifications, the depiction of Tudor England, and the further development of a lead who's both courageous and flawed... Rich period details burnish Sansom's status as one of today's top historical writers. -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" In [Sansom's] writing, 16th century London is vividly alive...Atop vibrant streets, Sansom layers a rich depiction of English court life and all its pretentions and splendors. Then there's Shardlake himself, an extremely likable character...gripping...Lamentation holds its own. -- ""NPR"" Utterly convincing. Historical fiction has long languished in the doldrums, despised by critics as an inferior genre. Those days are past...a fine example of the intelligent imagination playing on history [that] shows what the reader of history may often tend to forget: that events now safely in the past were once uncertainly and dangerously in the future. -- ""Wall Street Journal"""

Sansom has an unerring sense of pace and a deft historical touch.-- The New Yorker Sansom brings alive all levels of English society, from cutthroats and common soldiers to the king and queen themselves.-- Washington Post A richly entertaining and scholarly series. History never seemed so real.-- New York Times Book Review Sansom seems to have born with, or instinctively acquired, that precious balance of creativity and research, history and humanity.-- Chicago Tribune Among the most distinguished of modern historical novelists.-- P.D. James One of my favorite writers.-- Kate Atkinson Sansom offers a master class in royal intrigue-- Kirkus Reviews Brilliantly sketched [with] Shakespearean characterization and Byzantine plotting: amid all the stink and muck of Tudor London, Sansom offers a master class in royal intrigue. -- Kirkus Reviews Everything works in Sansom's superb sixth Matthew Shardlake novel: the murder mystery with grave political ramifications, the depiction of Tudor England, and the further development of a lead who's both courageous and flawed... Rich period details burnish Sansom's status as one of today's top historical writers. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) In [Sansom's] writing, 16th century London is vividly alive...Atop vibrant streets, Sansom layers a rich depiction of English court life and all its pretentions and splendors. Then there's Shardlake himself, an extremely likable character...gripping...Lamentation holds its own. -- NPR Utterly convincing. Historical fiction has long languished in the doldrums, despised by critics as an inferior genre. Those days are past...a fine example of the intelligent imagination playing on history [that] shows what the reader of history may often tend to forget: that events now safely in the past were once uncertainly and dangerously in the future. -- Wall Street Journal

Author Information

C. J. Sansom earned a PhD in history and was a lawyer before becoming a full-time writer. Steven Crossley, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, has built a career on both sides of the Atlantic as an actor and audiobook narrator, for which he has won more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a nominee for the prestigious Audie Award. He is a member of the internationally renowned theater company Complicite and has appeared in numerous theater, television, film, and radio dramas.

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