When an old friend is horrifically murdered Shardlake promises his widow, for whom he has long had complicated feelings, to bring the killer to justice. Should he be released to his parents, when his terrifying actions could lead to him being burned as a heretic? Matthew Shardlake, meanwhile, is working on the case of a teenage boy, a religious maniac locked in the Bedlam hospital for the insane.

Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies. But this time the object of his affections is resisting. Like Hilary Mantel, he produces densely textured historical novels that absorb their readers in another time' - Andrew Taylor, SpectatorĮngland, 1543: King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife. 'Sansom has the trick of writing an enthralling narrative. 'When it comes to intriguing Tudor-based narratives, Hilary Mantel has a serious rival' - Sunday Times Sansom's bestselling adventures of Matthew Shardlake continue in the fourth book, the haunting Revelation. Sansom himself was 'Very Highly Commended' in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series.Perfect for fans of HIlary Mantel and Philippa Gregory, C. He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.ĭark Fire won the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Sansom has been consulted on the series, which is in the final stages of negotiation. The rest of the Shardlake books are expected to follow. The BBC have commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution with the actor Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation.

He came to prominence with his series set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, whose main character is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. He practised for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before quitting in order to work full-time as a writer. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor. He was born in 1952 and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. Christopher John 'C.J.' Sansom is an English writer of crime novels.

Revelation cj sansom book review