I am a huge fan of mystery novels, especially historical ones sent in Tudor England, so the Shardlake series was a a huge yes for me. Sansom delivers an incredibly well-written and well-researched England set during the reign of Henry VIII. This one, the second in the series, finds hunchback (yes, it’s important to the character) lawyer Matthew Shardlake trying to track down a barrel of Greek Fire promised to Henry by Shardlake’s patron Thomas Cromwell; a barrel that has apparently resulted in the deaths of the two alchemists tasked with creating more. Assisting Matthew is Jack Barak, a streetwise young man in the employ of Cromwell.
As I said, I found this book really good. All the characters are well written, coming off the page in ways that make them seem real, both the historical and the fictional. Shardlake thankfully comes across as realistic, being intelligent enough to seem plausible as a lawyer, investigator, and narrator, without being a mystery-solving one man “Deus ex machina” wunderkind. On the other hand, he also doesn’t make you scream at the page “how is someone this stupid and breathing, never mind practicing law?” The mystery unwinds at a realistic pace, with the answer being a reveal to Shardlake at the same time as the reader.
It’s also nice that Sansom doesn’t shy way from adding faults to his characters; Matthew is prone to self-pity and jumping to emotionally-driven conclusions. And even with knowing the period opinions on hunchbacks, he is a little obsessed with thinking about it at least six times a day.
Jack Barak (does that rhyme, I wonder?), is also a vast improvement to Shardlake’s last assistant, Mark Poer. He’s crude and spends a large chunk of the book being suspicious and disdainful of Shardlake, but he is highly intelligent and helps out in a lot of tough spaces.
Thomas Cromwell is Thomas Cromwell; after reading Hilary Mantel (why did I put myself through that?) I am thoroughly tired of Cromwell. I know this is probably very close to what he was actually like, I just don’t why you’re supposed to think he’s a likable person. Or maybe you’re not.
Life in Tudor England is well shown here; the class snobbery, the racism, the machinations, the religious divides. Even the fact that not everyone in England was 100% on board with the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries.
I would definitely recommend this series if you like Tudor England, historical mysteries, and truly realistically written people.