Dark Fire (Matthew Shardlake‪)‬

Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, Dark Fire brings back acclaimed master of historical fiction C. J. Sansom’s colorful and rapier-witted lawyer Matthew Shardlake. This beguiling tale of murder and mayhem is set against the rich backdrop of 1540 London.

In the employ of King Henry VIII’s vicar general Lord Thomas Cromwell, hunchbacked Matthew is called upon to investigate the peculiar case of a young woman accused of murder who, oddly, refuses to speak on her own behalf. She’s been threatened with torture, yet still she will not speak. The only
course prescribed under law will see her slowly crushed to death for failing to enter a plea. After Cromwell grants her a 14-day reprieve, Matthew, desperate to help any way he can, undertakes a secret mission to investigate an apothecary rumored to possess an explosive new weapon called Greek Fire.

“Sansom’s vivid portrayal of squalid, stinking, bustling London; the city’s wealth and poverty; the brutality and righteousness of religious persecution; and the complexities of English law make this a suspenseful, colorful and compelling tale.”—Publishers Weekly