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Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake Mysteries)
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Features
  • ISBN13: 9780142004302
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Categories Historical   Contemporary   General   Paperback   Printed Books  

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Description
Exciting and stylishly written, Dissolution is an utterly compelling first novel and a riveting portrayal of Tudor England. The year is 1537, and the country is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar general, summons fellow reformer Matthew Shardlake to lead the inquiry. Shardlake and his young protégé uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason, and when two other murders are revealed, they must move shortly to prevent the killer from striking again.

Customer Reviews
Customer rating is 4 of 5  A thrilling Tudor detective tale   2010-02-28
By Lance Mitchell (Hampshire, UK, Northern Hemisphere, Planet Earth)
Having not been overly impressed by Winter in Madrid, I was a little bit worried about picking up another book by the same author, but this one was a bargain buy, which I couldn't resist. I am so happy that I did pick it up, as it is exactly the sort of book that I really enjoy. It is historical fiction which has a strong story with strong characters. I believe that the historical dates, personalities and links are all fairly accurate, but it would not bother me in the least if there were a few errors. I am not about to check.

Thomas Cromwell, who is Henry VIII's Vicar General, orders Matthew Shardlake, a high-ranking and hunch-backed lawyer, to proceed to the monastery of Scarnsea on the Sussex coast, to investigate the death of Robin Singleton, who was the King's Commissioner. Shardlake is also awarded the King's Commission, so that he steps straight into the post left vacant the murder victim whose killer he must seek. This makes him very nervous, yet determined to find the truth without coming to any harm. I freely admit that it made me, the reader, very nervous too.

Shardlake can trust nobody except, perhaps, his for trusty assistant.

The way that the story is told, in the first person singular, opens up the deep-rooted feelings that the main character has about the politics and religious antics (is there any difference?) of the time, and leads the reader into inevitable, parallel lines of thinking. That is very clever, and I love to be challenged on several levels by a work of historical fiction.

There are a few minor irritations. For example, without spoiling anything because this occurs very early on, I wondered why Shardlake failed to investigate the origins of the black cock that was found beheaded on the altar of the monastery chapel.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes this genre, and nothing is going to stop me from moving on to the next adventure in this series.
Customer rating is 4 of 5  A real treat if you enjoy historical mysteries.   2010-01-15
By J. Lesley (Midsouth, United States)
The birth of the Church of England came into full fruition amid the upheaval surrounding the dissolution of the monasteries run by the Roman Catholic Church. It was a wonderful experience to read the story this author created to illustrate the corruption and greed which was taking place on both sides of this issue. At the point this story takes place, 1537, Thomas Cromwell has dispatched a commissioner to investigate the death of the first commissioner he had sent to the monastery near Scarnsea on the Kent-Sussex border. Matthew Shardlake has become a successful lawyer in London when he comes to the notice of Cromwell and begins to perform services for the vicar general for King Henry VIII. This case is particularly important to Cromwell because his plan is to engineer the fall of all the monasteries by gaining the voluntary surrender of certain strategic houses. He needs for Shardlake and his assistant Mark Poer to find this murderer quickly so that the papers of surrender can be signed.

I read historical mysteries because I want to experience the atmosphere of the historical setting. This debut novel by C. J. Sansom satisfied me completely on that score. I also think the characters in the book were extremely well drawn and I especially appreciate that Shardlake was portrayed with very human faults. He experienced anger, frustration, infatuation and jealousy as he became acquainted with the monks and servants working at the monastery. The mystery is a very good puzzle, with some clues being given regarding the solutions but essentially having the reader wait for the writer to reveal the entire outcome. I appreciated the presence of an epilogue to finish out the remainder of the questions left open and to provide the answer to a very important question.

I found this book to be one which engaged my attention fully and I am now ready to move on to the next adventure with Matthew Shardlake.
Customer rating is 3 of 5  Not My Cup of Tea   2010-01-10
By Irishgal (Arizona, USA)
Let me start by saying that I generally love historical mysteries. They intrigue me and educate me about a time and place that I am not familiar with. I was looking forward to C.J. Sansom's "Dissolution", a mystery that takes place in a monastery during the English Reformation. However, the setting proved to be not my cup of tea. That being said, the book definitely has redeeming qualities.

C.J. Sansom has definitely researched this time period well, and his concluding historical note clarifies many of the points made in his book. It all begins in November 1537 when Dr. Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer working for Lord Thomas Cromwell in London, is asked to go to the Monastery of St. Donatus in southern England. One of Cromwell's commissioners, Robin Singleton, had been down there trying to negotiate the monks' surrender to Henry VIII. However, Singleton was found beheaded, and it is up to Shardlake and his assistant, Mark Poer, to discover who committed the heinous crime.

On the first night of their stay, another tragedy unfolds when a young novice, Simon Whelpy, becomes ill and dies a day later. The infirmist suspects poisoning, and the fact that Whelpy died before telling Shardlake about another possible murder leads Matthew to suspect that more is going on. Stories begin to circulate about a young woman working at the monastery who went missing a few years earlier, and there is the matter of the church being desecrated and a precious relic stolen.

It seems that the longer Shardlake stays, the more complex the mystery gets. What is truth and what is being made up to continue a way of life that may not be in the best interests of society? How much of the terror in London is real and how much was Cromwell's creation? Whom can Shardlake trust?

The book was interesting, and it definitely picked up toward the end. However, I can't give it five stars. Perhaps this is my own fault, as I learned that Tudor England doesn't interest me as much as I thought it did. C.J. Sansom wrote an intriguing novel, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
Customer rating is 4 of 5  Dissolution And Disillusionment   2009-12-20
By Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA)
Right. This novel is sure to be a hit with Cadfael devotees and all who like clever whodunits set within the confines of cold monastery walls and set in an era far removed from ours. But it's still a great read. Comparisons with Eco's The Name of The Rose are, I think, unfair. The book does not set out to do anything as grand as Eco. This is, after all, Sansom's debut novel. The book works so well for a number of reasons, the supreme one being atmosphere. Also, the use of outdated terms will delight logophiles of all stripes, whether they be "makebates" or no.

The title of the book may as well be "Disillusionment" as "Dissolution" as our sympathetic detective Shardlake moves from ardent reformer to something of a cynic in regard to the reforms instituted by Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. The reader must further chew upon passages such as the following:

"How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond."

Such ponderings are by no means confined to the 16th Century. But I return again to the atmospheric, almost poetic, prose which, for me, made the work a delight to read:

"A great window at the far end of the church, built to catch the morning light of the east was painted in geometric designs of yellow and orange. It flooded the nave with a gentle umber light, peaceful and numinous, softening the kaleidoscope of colours. The builders knew how to create atmosphere, no doubt of that."

And, likewise, C.J. Sansom certainly knows how to create atmosphere and to reconstruct an entire world, a bygone age for his readers.
Customer rating is 5 of 5  Stunning First Novel!   2009-11-08
By A. Morgan (South Carolina, United States)
Vacation for me means novels. I love historical novels and so this one caught my eye. A new author, Sansom was a lawyer in London whose degree was in History. Dissolution is the first in a series of `Tudor' detective novels. Set in 1537, during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer in the service of Thomas Cromwell - Henry VIII powerful Chancellor. The murder of a commissioner at a monastery prompts Cromwell to send Shardlake to investigate and to find enough evidence to close the monastery. Shardlake is a firm reformer and fully supports the dissolution of the corrupt monasteries and the eradication of catholicism in England.

The novel revolves around the investigation of Shardlake and how he gets the murderer. On the one hand this is a simple historical detective story but on the other hand, the book is an interesting presentation of the issues of the time and how Thomas Cromwell acted, the death of Anne Boleyn and whether the destruction of the monasteries were just - al of which was fascinating to read alongside the fiction. A fun and impressive first novel.


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