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Matthew Shardlake #1-5
The Matthew Shardlake Series Collection C. J. Sansom
Shardlake 1. Dissolution (2003) 2. Dark Fire (2004) 3. Sovereign (2006) 4. Revelation (2008) 5. Heartstone (2010)
Paperback
First published October 15, 2010
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About the author
C.J. Sansom
64 books3,916 followersChristopher John "C.J." Sansom was an English writer of crime novels.
Sansom was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor. He practised for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before quitting in order to work full-time as a writer.
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. Shardlake works on commission, initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation.
He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.
Dark Fire won the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Sansom himself was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series.
The television series "Shardlake" was adapted from the books and released by Disney+ on 1st May 2024, just 4 days after Samson's death.
(from Wikipedia®)
Sansom was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor. He practised for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before quitting in order to work full-time as a writer.
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. Shardlake works on commission, initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation.
He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.
Dark Fire won the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Sansom himself was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series.
The television series "Shardlake" was adapted from the books and released by Disney+ on 1st May 2024, just 4 days after Samson's death.
(from Wikipedia®)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2012
(For some reason, this is listed as 'Turkish' here. I'm almost sure Anton Lesser doesn't speak Turkish, and I certainly don't understand it. My edition is, strangely-enough, in English).
I love being read to. Echoes of childhood, I suppose.
I have read all the Shardlake books and enjoyed them enormously. But this (presumably) edited version of all five is superb. I've never enjoyed a boxed set of anything more. Anton Lesser's reading is superhuman; he IS Shardlake. He is also Barak, Henry VIII, Cranmer and all the minor characters, without relying on 'funny voices'...just a hint of regional accent generally sufficing. A thirty-five-hour (!) performance way beyond masterly.
Addendum: I've just listened to the entire set again. Can it be possible that they're even better the second time around?
This...if it were possible...would be a ten-star review.
I love being read to. Echoes of childhood, I suppose.
I have read all the Shardlake books and enjoyed them enormously. But this (presumably) edited version of all five is superb. I've never enjoyed a boxed set of anything more. Anton Lesser's reading is superhuman; he IS Shardlake. He is also Barak, Henry VIII, Cranmer and all the minor characters, without relying on 'funny voices'...just a hint of regional accent generally sufficing. A thirty-five-hour (!) performance way beyond masterly.
Addendum: I've just listened to the entire set again. Can it be possible that they're even better the second time around?
This...if it were possible...would be a ten-star review.
June 20, 2012
If you loved the series "The Tudors", or the film "Man for All Seasons", or other films/books about the reign of King Henry VIII-- or if you like historical fiction AND mysteries, these books are for you.The main character, Matthew Shardlake, is a lawyer who at series' beginning is a reformer reporting to Cromwell. Vol 1, "Dissolution" is a murder mystery set in a monastery on the south English coast slated for dissolution by the state. Vol 2, "Dark Fire" finds our hero back in London investigating an alchemical WMD imported to England's shores. Vol.3, "Sovereign"'s mystery takes place during the wake of a northern conspiracy to overthrow the king, amid the grand pageantry of the royal process to York in 1531. I had a hard time finishing "Revelation"-- it gets boring in the way that serial-killer mysteries tend to do-- yet there is much of interest in the tug of war between reformers beginning to get more extreme as Henry tries to turn the clock back, & a peek at Bedlam. I look forward to "Heartstone."
April 8, 2021
Can't wait for the next instalment and I ask, will it be Shardlake's final adventure? I really hope not. An endearing character who works and lives in an England that is so convincing it's hard to return to the present time. Transported is what you will be when you read this series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews