This was probably the weirdest (and creepiest) book in the series so far. The motivation behind the murders is unfortunately still around today, and I enjoyed the Tudor take on the movie Seven (though having never seen the movie, I am just guessing at that comparison).
I also appreciated how well-researched the book is, and how realistically all the characters are written; though Shardlake and his “crush on a woman who is going to kick him in the teeth” per book is starting to get a bit old. I will say that I found how calm and nonplussed over Guy’s bisexuality Matthew was slightly odd/unrealistic based on previous examples of character. Though I guess that goes to show that when Matthew Shardlake can get over mildly self-pitying himself (and he can actually do that occasionally), he can turn out to be a caring and sympathetic character. Though the continuing saga of people apparently riding hard from Scotland (I swear) just to announce to him that he is, indeed, a hunchback is starting to become laughable and yet real old. Though for the love of all this is holy, Shardlake; stop trying to be a decent person to Belkneap, he’s only going to keep screwing you over.
My heart broke for Tamsin in this book; she went from someone I wasn’t sure I liked in Sovereign, to someone who deserves far better than Jack Barak. With everything that she goes through, Tamsin probably joins me in thinking she didn’t know how good she had it making sweetmeats for Catherine Howard. It was also interesting to read this after Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, because the Bassanos (a family of Italian musicians that is mentioned in passing here) is fleshed out a bit more in that book. The one thing that got to me was the rape-based agoraphobia; I know it happens in real life, I just think that it is just a little bit of a tired trope (I mean, isn’t that basically the backstory of Ariana Dumbledore?) Adam Kite was proof of what can happen with ultra-religious parents; it’s either Bedlam or mass slaughter at your Prom.
Though it’s not just Kite’s parents; it’s his preacher closer to home, but also English society in whole at the time. With Henry starting to decide that the only problem with Roman Catholicism was that it had the Pope as the head of God’s Church instead of Henry, England was cracking down on the more militant Protestants.
Seeing as this is heavily influenced by the Book of Revelations of the Bible, I would recommending having a passing knowledge with it before picking up this book; religious fanaticism is definitely the theme of the book. I can’t wait to read the last three books in this series.