The Nature of Things

The year is 1549 and things are about to get very interesting in Tudor England.  Henry VIII has been dead for two years. His son by his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward VI, is now king. Edward is eleven years old and his uncle, Edward Seymour, rules as regent and Protector. The Protector has pursued a prolonged and essentially senseless war against Scotland which has led to economic collapse with hyperinflation which makes life even more difficult than usual for the poor. Moreover, after three good harvest years, 1549 threatens to be a very lean year in the countryside. The peasants are restless and rebellion is brewing. In London, lawyer Matthew Shardlake continues to pursue his profession, now with his assistant Nicholas. Shardlake had been employed by various members of the Tudor regime over the years, lastly by Henry's sixth wife, Catherine Parr. Now his services are utilized by the Lady Elizabeth, Henry's younger daughter by Ann Boleyn, who is fifteen years old. Elizabeth...

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom My rating: 5 of 5 stars The last previous book in C.J.Sansom's excellent series set in the Tudor era in England was called Heartstone and was published in 2010. Thus, I have been waiting impatiently for almost five years for the next entry in the series. I'm delighted to say that it was worth the wait. Lamentation is the sixth book in the series and it takes us to the end of the long and eventful reign of Henry VIII. The year is 1546 and Henry is slowly and painfully dying. It is a time of fear in the realm because of the hunt for heretics. If they are found, they are doomed to a ghastly death. The religious struggle is between those who believe in the transubstantiation of the elements of the Holy Eucharist - that the bread and wine literally turn into the body and blood of Christ - and those who do not believe that, and those who do not believe are considered the heretics. Around the throne, Henry's Protestant and Catholic councillors are eng...

I admit it. I am a mystery series junkie. I enjoy nothing better than discovering a well-written mystery series with sympathetic characters that I can care about. I love following the development of the series and the characters. If it happens to be a historical mystery, then I have truly found nirvana. I might just OD. Probably my favorite mystery series at the moment, and it does just happen to be historical, is C.J.Sansom's Tudor mysteries featuring the hunchback lawyer/detective Matthew Shardlake. Part way through the series Shardlake was joined by an assistant, Jack Barak. The two of them together make a very effective team, a team which exhibits a humanistic philosophy in what is, in many ways, the very inhumane society that was Henry XIII's England of the mid-1500s. Heartstone is the fifth book in the series and is one of the best. Of course, I think I say that about them all. In this ent...