Review: Sovereign
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsRenaissance barrister Matthew Shardlake joins Henry VIII's mammoth progress to the rebellious North on a mission from the wily Cardinal Cranmer. In the rainy autumn of 1541, in the city of York, clever, upwardly mobile, hunchback lawyer Shardlake and his trusty Jewish clerk Jack Barak slog through trackless forests with orders to protect an imprisoned rebel from his sadistic jailer. Cardinal Cranmer wants the prisoner brought back alive to London where he can be properly tortured for information about a recent conspiracy to unseat the once-glorious monarch, now obese and limping and on his fifth wife. The gloomy city is seething with resentment as Henry's gigantic entourage approaches. Advance forces have taken over desecrated monasteries to house the thousands of soldiers, lawyers, courtiers, caterers and whores comprising the royal progress, and the Yorkers hate them all. Shardlake quickly stumbles onto the grisly murder of a glazier with ties to the rebellion and then himself becomes the victim of a string of attacks when he finds that the victim was guarding an old jewelry box containing documents that could blow the Tudor succession to bits. He's knocked unconscious before he can read the papers, which quickly vanish, but someone thinks he knows enough to make him a danger. Shardlake has to elude the murderers, avoid his arch-enemy Sir Richard Rich and stay out of the way of the grumpy monarch, whose frisky, much younger wife, Catherine Howard, may be involved in a fatal flirtation. While Jack dallies with a pretty servant from Queen Catherine's retinue, Shardlake gets assistance in his inquiries from a kindly old colleague who knows more about the conspiracy than he lets on. As always, former lawyer Sansom (Dark Fire, 2005, etc.) fleshes out the detection with rich historic details presented at a stately pace. Highly intelligent entertainment.
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Jen - GoodreadsWhen it comes to historical fiction, King Henry VIII's rule is my favorite period to read about. I find the entire thing fascinating, from the political and religious angles as well as the social ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Carl Brush - GoodreadsLesley Sharrock (Author of one of my favorite novels, The Seventh Magpie) told me when I reviewed Heartstone that it was not the best of CJ Ransom's Shardlake series about a Henry VIII era hunchback ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Breezy - GoodreadsConspiracy, suspense, and friendship. Recipe for great books. Which is why I love the Shardlake series. Our protagonist is honorable, incredibly intelligent and passionate. His deformity adds to his ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Mark Bowman - GoodreadsI continue to be enthralled with this historical fiction and murder mystery series set in Tudor England. This is the third book in the series and one in which Henry VIII plays a more prominent role ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Lisa - GoodreadsI don't quite know why it is that airplane travel saps the brain in quite the way that it does, but there is no doubt that it's impossible to read anything at all complicated on planes. So this ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Bruno Bouchet - GoodreadsThe third Shardlake book and it's another really enjoyable read. Sansom goes to some length to make each book different, rather than churning out the same old pieces shuffled into a new order. Most of ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Richard Denning - GoodreadsI have loved each of the Shardlake novels. If you ahe not read any Shardlake starts out as a strong reformist working for Cromwell during the dissolution of the monasteries. In Dissolution he has to ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Rosemary - GoodreadsI enjoy the Matthew Shardlake series, in part, perhaps because as the series has progressed Shardlake's dissolving respect for the Tudors mirrors my own passage from starry-eyed attachment to that ... Read full review
Review: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake #3)
User Review - Goodreads#3 in the Matthew Shardlake series, and perhaps the best one yet. After his patron Thomas Cromwell's death Shardlake hopes to practice law and remain outside of politics, but he's called upon by ...
