Great stuff, a little too long
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This third entry in the Shardlake series is as detailed and vivid as the previous two entries. The plot is rather convoluted and I found it a little implausible, though I was aware of the Blaybourne allegations from my reading of Yorkist history, and, of course, it must be admitted that Tudor history is replete with true occurrences that the most fanciful historical novelist would hardly dare invent (would a novelist ever invent the story of Henry VIII's six wives? no, it would probably be too implausible to make up!). I also thought this one was rather too long at 650 pages and I got just a tiny little bit tired of chapter after chapter ending with Shardlake bumping into one of his antagonists coming round the corner yet again. But this was all more than compensated for by the last 100 pages, full of such drama, horror and twists and turns that, in the words on the front cover of my edition, made me unable to prise myself from it.
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Pedant's Corner
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I like the Shardlake books: the let a person while away a week of winter evenings and painlessly absorb some history at the same time. This one, though, wasn't quite up to scratch. Sometimes the psychological reality slips (such as when Shardlake has a tooth tortured out of him: I felt I was more bothered by it than he was). And I kept feeling that some of the details just didn't quite ring true... and then we set sail from Hull, and the whole book promptly lost all credibility.
Warning: pedantic rant follows:
I'm no expert sailor, but I have gadded about a bit on the briny. On Planet Earth, you tack when the wind is blowing out of the quarter into which you wish to travel. On Planet Shardlake, you tack because of light winds. Er, no. Tack in light winds, and you can come to a standstill.
Then they went all the way up the Orwell to Ipswich to get their rudder fixed, when they could have put in to Harwich which is conveniently on the coast. Then it took them four days, with favourable winds, to get themselves from Ipswich to London. Even allowing for the lumbering design of Tudor ships, I can't imagine it would take that long. A Victorian working vessel, sails, no engine, built for handiness and cargo capacity and many other things besides raw speed, can hammer from the mouth of the Thames to halfway up the Orwell in less than seven hours, if there's a strong blow on her side.
Mistakes like this spoil a book for me, as they make me doubt all the facts that I don't know and can't check. That's not to say that I won't read the next Shardlake, but I'll be talking some of the details with a pinch of salt.
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Long winded !!
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Long winded and not as interesting as the first two. For me Dissolution is the best of the lot. However Shardlake is a great fictional creation and certainly the best of this popular genre of writing.
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Fantastic - a must read
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It is a true delight to discover a book like this - I was unable to stop reading whilst nagging away at the back of my mind was the worry that I would finish it too soon. The sights and sounds of Tudor England come to life with historical accuracy of the times, and it is great thriller.
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Another Excellent Shardlake Mystery!!
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Sovereign is set in 1541, during the King Henry VIII Progress to the North, an area of the country where his reign and religous reforms are unpopular, and its immediate aftermath.
Travelling in the Progress, is lawyer, Matthew Shardlake, under instructions from Archbishop Cranmer,to see that a prisoner is brought safely from York to the Tower of London for interrogation. Travelling with Shardlake, is his assistant, Jack Barak.
Upon his arrival in York, a glazier is murdered, and as Shardlake is near the scene of the crime, and hears the glazier's dying words, he becomes embroiled in a deep mystery. It soon becomes apparent that someone wants the Lawyer dead, before he can investigate any further into the glazier's last bizarre utterings.
I found this book a fantastic read. The attention to detail, and characterisation is second to none. You feel as if you are right there amongst the people of this turbulent era. The mixture of fictional and real characters in the storyline is very well done, also. As the story progresses you think one person is the murderer, then another. It was one of those rare books that I did not want to end. I would highly recommend this book.
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