Customer Rating:  
Summary: Great story and characters! A must for lovers of history
Comment: I bought this off Amazon after my Sister raved about it. I am interested in the Dissolution of the Monasteries anyway so I thought I would give it a try.
To begin with, it is hard to keep up with the many different characters, but it doesn't take long for it all to come together, and it works really well.
Set in a monastery during the Dissolution, with Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer is sent to investigate a Murder, and also to persuade the Monastery to dissolve voluntarily. Shardlake finds himself in the middle of sin and murder!
I really enjoyed this book, and have bought the rest of the series!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Comment: What a corker of a book ! gripping storyline and one of those rare books where you wish to get to the end for the result but dont want it to end.
I now understand the word "unputdownable" As well as a whodunnit ,it also stimulated me to research more into the structure and function of monastaries and also the politics of Early Tudor times and the reformation.
Should be on a school curriculum for reading to stimulate an interest in our past history
The sequel "DarkFire" is also compelling , so now I'm about to get my teeth ino "Sovereign"
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tudor Thriller
Comment: This book is not as dry as it sounds in the product description! You'd have to be a pretty bad writer to make anything to do with Henry VIII boring but this book adds a new twist.
Our "hero", Matthew Shardlake, is a hunchback lawyer that works for Cromwell around the time that Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, died in childbirth. But Henry's problems are merely a background, the novel is concerned with the murder of one of Cromwell's officers in a monastery which Shardlake is sent to investigate. The description of life in the monastery and the life of the lay people that live in the nearby village is fascinating and just as interesting as the mystery itself. The characters are developed with the story and there's even a little romance.
This book is perfect for anyone remotely interested in this period in history. I shall be buying the second novel and look forward to learning more about Mr Shardlake.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't judge a book by its cover - Sadly disappointed
Comment: I was really looking forward to this book being a lover of Crime/Thirllers and Tudor history. I thought this would be right up my street and it seemed to be getting lots of good reviews on Amazon. Story surrounds Shardlake - lawyer and officer of Thomas Cromwell - who is sent to a monastery to investigate a murder. The book looked great and I began it with great excitement but I have to say I found it slow, dull, predictable and very put downable. Has some similarities to Name of the Rose in atmosphere (but obviously not as good) but I won't be reading any more of his.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic historical crime novel - totally unmissable
Comment: The weaving of historical detail into a complex storyline is masterful and I found this novel totally compelling. Sansom is expert at evoking the sounds and smells of London in the 1500s, and developing his characters as the story progresses. His use of language is rich and expressive, in some ways reminiscent of Hardy and Dickens, but with great pace and clever crime thriller plot. What really impressed me was the way that the reader's sympathy for the characters portrayed - including Shardlake - wavers and changes through the story, making them much more convincing. I read this straight through, then rushed off to buy Dark Fire.
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