Matthew Shardlake, meanwhile, is working on the case of a teenage boy, a religious maniac locked in the Bedlam hospital for the insane.
Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies. But this time the object of his affections is resisting. Like Hilary Mantel, he produces densely textured historical novels that absorb their readers in another time’ - Andrew Taylor, SpectatorĮngland, 1543: King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife. ‘Sansom has the trick of writing an enthralling narrative. 'When it comes to intriguing Tudor-based narratives, Hilary Mantel has a serious rival' - Sunday Times Sansom's bestselling adventures of Matthew Shardlake continue in the fourth book, the haunting Revelation. One can only hope that the character sees his obsessiveness and returns to the more normal behavior pattern of the previous books.Perfect for fans of HIlary Mantel and Philippa Gregory, C. In the end the wonderful narration by Steven Crossley was enough for me to give it 5 stars in spite of Matthew's erratic and disturbing behavior. The mysteries are sufficiently interesting and difficult to solve to give this book a high rating but Matthew's behavior, which disturbed me more than it should have, made this book far less enjoyable than it could have been. Rating this book has been a problem for me. The other mysteries, while less central to the main story line, were also interesting in their own way with some answers being more surprising than others. On the positive side the main mystery, which involves the welfare of a child, is probably the most opaque and the resolution took me completely by surprise. He has always seemed well-centered and cautious, but not here. This is not the Matthew I have known throughout these books.
Readers might expect him to place himself in some danger in trying to solve a mystery but here Matthew willfully ignores advice he knows is best, disobeys his Queen and purposefully antagonizes people who can do him harm.
For the first time in all of these books I lost patience with Matthew Shardlake. This offering actually contains four distinct mysteries and Matthew has taken on the chore of answering all of them and, as part of solving them, becomes far too obsessed to be healthy. The quality of these mysteries has, for me, varied from book to book with some (like Dissolution) keeping their secrets until the end while others (like Dark Fire) requiring far less effort for the reader to solve. C J Sansom has delivered another wonderful Matthew Shardlake mystery.
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