The second in a superior, beautifully written Tudor crime series steeped in historical detail and atmosphere. It began with Dissolution where our quiet lawyer Shardlake is drawn into an assignment for Thomas Cromwell and continues now with another. Classy and clever, it is head and shoulders above the norm.
The second in Christopher Sansom's remarkable historical crime series It's 1540, three years after Shardlake was commissioned by Cromwell to investigate the murders at Scarnsea monastery. It is the hottest summer of the sixteenth century. Shardlake is trying to keep a low profile, believing himself to be out of favour with Thomas Cromwell while at the same time maintaining his London-based legal practice. He has been pulled, against his better judgement, into defending Elizabeth Wentworth, charged with murdering her cousin. But Elizabeth refuses to plead either guilty or not guilty. The penalty for not pleading is to be crushed under a weight until you plead or die. Shardlake is powerless to help the girl yet she is suddenly granted a reprieve - courtesy of Cromwell. The cost of the reprieve to Shardlake is two weeks once again in the service of Cromwell. Cromwell, however, is no longer the triumphant, irresistible force he once was, not least because of the ill-fated marriage he arranged for the King with Anne of Cleves.
C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a Ph.D. in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Sussex.
