Dissolution
A Darkly Atmospheric Murder Mystery from the Bestselling Historical Series
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Now a major Disney+ original series, Shardlake – also airing on ITV.
'A fiendish puzzle and a slice of gritty historical fiction, with a brilliantly unconventional detective at its heart' – Richard Osman, bestselling author of We Solve Murders
Dissolution is the first novel in C. J. Sansom’s phenomenally bestselling Shardlake series. After one of Cromwell's commissioners is brutally murdered, Matthew Shardlake is drawn into an investigation that becomes darker than he could have ever imagined . . .
England, 1537. It is a time of revolution that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church. The country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers it has ever seen. And under the orders of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent throughout the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: dissolution.
But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's commissioner, Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed from his body. His horrific murder accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege.
Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent by Cromwell to uncover the truth behind the dark happenings at Scarnsea. But Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything that he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes . . .
Follow Shardlake into the dark heart of Tudor England with the next book in the series, Dark Fire.
Praise for the series:
'A remarkable, imaginative feat' – Mail on Sunday
'His narrative’s tingling intrigues will have you hooked from first page to last' – Sunday Times
'The perfect mixture of novelistic passion and historical detail' – Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph
'Extraordinarily impressive' – Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse series
'An utterly convincing world' – Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl
'Utterly gripping' – Marian Keyes, author of Rachel's Holiday
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Murders on the grounds of a monastery, 16th-century intrigue, an unconventional sleuth readers might wonder if this is a knock-off Name of the Roseset two centuries later, but Sansom's debut is a compelling historical mystery in its own right, with fewer pyrotechnics and plenty of period detail. It is 1537; the English Reformation is in full swing; and Lord Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's vicar-general, is busy shutting down papist institutions. When one of his commissioners is beheaded at a remote Benedictine monastery, Cromwell dispatches a second emissary, hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, to investigate the murder. What Shardlake and his companion, eager young Mark Poer, discover is a quietly bubbling cesspool of corruption, lust and avarice. The scope of the investigation quickly expands when a novice is poisoned and Shardlake finds the remains of a girl who served the monks in the monastery pond. Shardlake presses on by testing the alibis of the various corrupt monks, but Poer's objectivity is compromised when he becomes involved with the girl's successor, a bright, attractive woman named Alice Fewterer. As the investigation unfolds, Shardlake survives a murder attempt, and finally returns to London to tie his findings to higher-level intrigue. Sansom paints a vivid picture of the corruption that plagued England during the reign of Henry VIII, and the wry, rueful Shardlake is a memorable protagonist, a compassionate man committed to Cromwell's reforms, but increasingly doubtful of the motives of his fellow reformers. With this cunningly plotted and darkly atmospheric effort, Sansom proves himself to be a promising newcomer.
