In the Matthew Shardlake Mysteries series, a hunchback lawyer-detective works under Thomas Cromwell to solve murderous conspiracies in the Tudor court.
Dissolution: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 1 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $8.99)
Dissolution is an utterly riveting portrayal of Tudor England. The year is 1537, and the country is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar general, summons fellow reformer Matthew Shardlake to lead the inquiry.
Shardlake and his young protégé uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason, and when two other murders are revealed, they must move quickly to prevent the killer from striking again.
A “remarkable debut” (P. D. James), Dissolution introduces a thrilling historical series that is not to be missed by fans of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
Dark Fire: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 2 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
In 1540, during the reign of Henry VIII, Shardlake is asked to help a young girl accused of murder. She refuses to speak in her defense even when threatened with torture.
But just when the case seems lost, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s feared vicar general, offers Shardlake two more weeks to prove his client’s innocence.
In exchange, Shardlake must find a lost cache of “Dark Fire,” a legendary weapon of mass destruction. What ensues is a page-turning adventure, filled with period detail and history.
“Atmospheric and engaging” (Margaret George), this second book in Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series delves again into the dark and superstitious world of Cromwell’s England introduced in Dissolution.
Sovereign: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 3 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $14.99)
The third Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C. J. Sansom.
C. J . Sansom has garnered a wider audience and increased critical praise with each new novel published. His first book in the Matthew Shardlake series, Dissolution, was selected by P. D. James in The Wall Street Journal as one of her top five all-time favorite books.
Now, in Sovereign, Shardlake faces the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Shardlake and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, find themselves embroiled in royal intrigue when a plot against King Henry VIII is uncovered in York and a dangerous conspirator they’ve been charged with transporting to London is connected to the death of a local glazer.
Revelation: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 4 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $10.99)
In 1543, while Tudor England is abuzz with King Henry VIII’s wooing of Lady Catherine Parr, Matthew Shardlake is working to defend a teenage boy, a religious fanatic being held in the infamous Bedlam hospital for the insane.
Then, when an old friend is murdered, Shardlake’s search for the killer leads him back not only to Bedlam but also to Catherine Parr-and the dark prophecies of the Book of Revelation.
Hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (The Denver Post) and “historical fiction writing at its best” (The Tampa Tribune), Revelation is a must-read for fans of Hilary Mantel, Margaret George, and Philippa Gregory.
Heartstone: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 5 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $8.99)
The epic fifth novel in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series by the bestselling author of Winter in Madrid and Dominion.
Summer 1545. A massive French armada is threatening England, and Henry VIII has plunged the country into economic crisis to finance the war. Meanwhile, an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr has asked Matthew Shardlake to investigate claims of “monstrous” wrongs committed against a young ward of the court. As the French fleet approaches, Shardlake’s inquiries reunite him with an old friend-and an old enemy close to the throne.
This fast-paced fifth installment in C. J. Sansom’s “richly entertaining and reassuringly scholarly series” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review) will enchant fans of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Other Boleyn Girl.
Lamentation: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery – Matthew Shardlake Mysteries Book 6 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $11.99)
As Henry VIII lies on his deathbed, an incendiary manuscript threatens to tear his court apart.
Summer, 1546. King Henry VIII is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councilors are engaged in a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government. As heretics are hunted across London, and radical Protestants are burned at the stake, the Catholic party focuses its attack on Henry’s sixth wife–and Matthew Shardlake’s old mentor–Queen Catherine Parr.
Shardlake, still haunted by his narrow escape from death the year before, steps into action when the beleaguered and desperate Queen summons him to Whitehall Palace to help her recover a dangerous manuscript. The Queen has authored a confessional book, Lamentation of a Sinner, so radically Protestant that if it came to the King’s attention it could bring both her and her sympathizers crashing down. Although the secret book was kept hidden inside a locked chest in the Queen’s private chamber, it has inexplicably vanished. Only one page has been recovered–clutched in the hand of a murdered London printer.
Shardlake’s investigations take him on a trail that begins among the backstreet printshops of London, but leads him and his trusty assistant Jack Barak into the dark and labyrinthine world of court politics, a world Shardlake swore never to enter again. In this crucible of power and ambition, Protestant friends can be as dangerous as Catholic enemies, and those with shifting allegiances can be the most dangerous of all.
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