C J Sansom, Matthew Shardlake, Dissolution and Dark Fire

Last year sometime we were shopping at Westfield in West London, N wanted to pop into a few clothes shops and I decided to have a browse in Foyles bookshop. That's where I noticed on the new releases shelf copies of Heartstone by C J Sansom. I picked it up and had a quick read of the blurb and seeing it was the fifth novel in a series put it back again. Fastforward to Christmas and N gave me the first two books as a present. Dissolution and Dark Fire... and do you know what? They are absolutely bloody brilliant!!

The stories follow the investigations of Matthew Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer who finds himself involuntarily working for Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's righthand man.

Dissolution, the first novel, introduces us to Shardlake and Tudor England during the time of the Reformation. Our hero is ordered to investigate the murder of one of Cromwell's commissioners who was in the process of closing down the monastery in Scarnsea on the south coast. There are a wealth of suspects (most of them are monks) and Shardlake is working to a tight schedule especially as they are snowed in. More murders follow and is Shardlake himself under threat?

Dark Fire, the second novel, introduces us to a new major character. Jack Barak, a resourceful agent of Cromwell's who teams up with Shardlake to discover who has stolen the secret of Greek Fire which Cromwell wants to demonstrate to the King as it could be a major weapon to be used against the French and the Spanish. At the same time Shardlake is also investigating another mystery. Why is the niece of a friend of his not spilling the beans on the murder of her cousin? Both plots are interwoven and again it is a race against time as our heroes must solve both cases in a week or innocent people will suffer.

These are the best two books I have read in ages. I love the characters and the pacing of the stories are spot on. The concise descriptions of the locations are terrific... especially in Dark Fire which is entirely set in London. Absolutely first class and I am most certainly going to read the other books.

Rating: 10/10 (for both of them)