NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES ON DISNEY+ STARRING SEAN BEAN
In an age of treachery and turmoil, brutal murder brings the ultimate test of faith ...
"A first-rate murder mystery" Independent on Sunday
"Shardlake is a character to treasure" Sunday Times
"Terrific. Historical fiction at its finest" Peter Robinson
Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be 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 alter, 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. But Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes ...
Dissolution is the first in the phenomenal Shardlake series by bestselling author C. J. Sansom, followed by Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone and Lamentation.
PRAISE FOR SHARDLAKE TV SERIES:
"Viewers who enjoy historical fiction and ecclesiastical murdering - Wolf Hall, The Cadfael Chronicles or The Name of the Rose - should make a beeline for this cloak-and-dagger crime drama, set during the dissolution of the monasteries. Based on the Shardlake novels by CJ Sansom" Sunday Times C J Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Sussex.
