Matthew Shardlake Series

C. J. Sansom is an international bestselling author known for riveting suspense and intricately constructed mysteries. His atmospheric prose has earned him an Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, among other accolades. In the third novel in this riveting series, barrister Matthew Shardlake is faced with the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: his own imprisonment in the Tower of London. Harsh autumn winds stir the English countryside as King Henry VIII, along with a thousand soldiers and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, make their way from London to York after a violent uprising. Shardlake and his loyal assistant, John Barack, have a secret mission—they must transport a dangerous conspirator back to London for interrogation. After a local glazier is murdered, Shardlake finds that this death seems not only connected to the prisoner, but to the royal family itself. Shardlake grows more determined when he realizes that a greater threat looms over the crown. “Sansom seems to have been born with, or instinctively acquired, that precious balance of creativity and research that lets mystery set in another time walk a delicate line between history and humanity.”—Chicago Tribune

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

Earning praise on both sides of the Atlantic, C. J. Sansom’s mysteries brim with period detail and tightly woven intrigue. In this fan-favorite series, hunchbacked Matthew Shardlake practices law amidst the political and religious upheaval of King Henry VIII’s court. Desperate, the parents of a young man fanatically obsessed with salvation employ Shardlake to help get their son released from the Bedlam hospital for the insane. Already with a full plate, Shardlake is further burdened when a close friend is viciously murdered. After making a promise to the man’s widow to bring the killer to justice, Shardlake further expands his investigation. What he uncovers is a terrifying conspiracy surrounding a Biblical prophecy with ties to both the boy in Bedlam and King Henry’s latest romantic conquest—Catherine Parr. In Revelation, Sansom’s mastery of character and atmosphere is on full display. “Don’t expect to put the book down until you’ve seen it through to the apocalyptic finale.”—Observer

The #1 international bestselling author brings us his fifth Shardlake novel. Summer, 1545. England is at war, and Matthew Shardlake is about to encounter the most politically dangerous case of his career. While a massive French fleet prepares to attack, every able-bodied man is being pressed into military service. Meanwhile, an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr asks Shardlake to investigate claims of “monstrous wrongs” committed against a young ward of the court. Shardlake’s inquiries take him and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, to Hoyland Priory and Portsmouth, where the English fleet is gathering. There they uncover a startling link between the ward and a woman incarcerated in Bedlam. With a fantastic backdrop of wartime intrigue and a dramatic finale onboard one of Henry VIII’s great warships, Heartstone is certain to catapult this internationally bestselling series to greater prominence.

The brilliant first novel in the bestselling historical series starring Matthew Shardlake, “the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England.” Exciting and elegantly written, Dissolution is an utterly compelling first novel and a 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.