From my database: DISSOLUTION, C.J. Sansom

I started using my current database at the end of 2004, and it now has records of well over 500 books. It occurred to me the other day that there is some perfectly good material in that database, just waiting to be used in my blog.

So from time to time, I will use one as the basis of a blog posting.

DISSOLUTION was the first in C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series.

Blurb:
It is 1537, a time of revolution that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry VIII has procliamed himslef the Supreme Head of the Church. The country is waking up to new savage laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers that it has ever seen. Under the orders of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent throughout the country to investigate the monasteries. There can be only one outcome: the monasteries are to be dissolved.
But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's commissioner, Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed from his body. His horrific murder is accompanied by equally sinister acts of sacrilege - a black cockerel sacrificed on the church altar and the disappearance of Scarnsea's Great relic.
Dr. Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death, accompanied by his loyal assistant Mark. His duty is to uncover the truth behind the dark happenings at Scarnsea.
Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything that he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes..

My comment:
DISSOLUTION is set in a period that I have always found fascinating.
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS became one of my favourite films, and Thomas Cromwell, as portrayed by Leo McKern, an image difficult to dislodge.

Although set 300 years later, this book reminded me a lot of the Brother Cadfael books. I found it a bit slow to start with, but the plot was clever and the characters well drawn. An interesting picture of the turmoil that resulted in Anne Boleyn's execution. At the time of the book, Jane Seymour has just died and Cromwell survives. The impact of the dissolution of the monasteries is well described and Henry VIII's need for them to agree to their own dissolution in the name of Reform gives an interesting perspective.

My rating was 5.0

The series:

1. Dissolution (2003)
2. Dark Fire (2004)
3. Sovereign (2006)
4. Revelation (2008)

DISSOLUTION has been Amazon UK's Amazon UK's Crime fiction the top 100 for 738 days - that's over 2 years. DARK FIRE won the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger in 2005, while REVELATION was shorlisted for the same award in 2008.
SOVEREIGN was shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Award in 2008, and in May 2008 DISSOLUTION and DARK FIRE were both in the Amazon UK Crime Fiction top 10.

So if you are looking for really good crime fiction in a historical setting, here is a series to choose.