The year is 1537, Henry VIII has just buried his third wife, Jane Seymour, and is actively looking to dissolve the monasteries, take their lands and riches, and pension off the monks. Cromwell has done so with the small monasteries and is looking for ways to take the large ones. When a Commissioner sent to investigate possible wrong doing at the monastery at Scarnsea is murdered, Cromwell sends fellow Reformer, Matthew Shardlake to investigate. It is more complicated than he at first assumed, with more questions than answers. This is a detailed historical mystery. It is not a period I have read much in and I can't say that I will pursue the series. The mystery and writing was good, just not a period I want to read about. ( )

4.5/5 #ShardlakeSeriesBR

Not only did I forget "whodunnit", but I forgot a LOT in this novel! My rereading is in honor of C.J. Sansom, the brilliant creator of this series, who passed away recently from cancer. Matthew Shardlake is not only our brilliant "detective," but he is a gloriously flawed man whose Reformation beliefs bring him to his knees in this compelling Tudor-time mystery. I did remember how much I love these books! ( )

Always nice to start a new series with lots of subsequent installments, especially when the first one is as well done as this! ( )

Dissolution, C.J. Sansom. 2003. This is the first of a series set in Tudor England. HenryVIII has declared himself head of the Church in England. Thomas Cromwell has been charged with closing the monasteries and claiming their wealth for the crown. Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer and a supporter of the “new religion” is sent a monastery to investigate the murder of one of Crowell’s commissioners. Neither the Catholics nor the Protestants shine in this mystery, but if you enjoy reading about Tudor history, this may turn out to be a good series. ( )

Set in the reign of Henry VIII. Vivid portrayal of squalid, stinking, bustling London, the city's wealth and poverty; the brutality and righteous persecution; and the complexities of English law. Murder mystery set in the confines of St Donatus monastery, Kent. Gripping and exciting.

With my three star rating, I would have abandoned this book much earlier. But my husband said it was worth reading, so I had to see how it resolved. I won't be reading the sequels... ( )

This has been in my tbr pile for a bit. I moved it to the top after reading Stephen's review of book 3. ( )

I've heard a lot of good things about this series, and I wasn't disappointed. Historical mysteries are especially enjoyable when the author has done his/her homework, and this is the case here :-) I liked the setting, the many details from the time period, and the mystery plot was quite good (I did guess who the murderer was before the main character did, though...).

At first I thought that the writing style was too cool and detached, but it grew on me. Also, I had read Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" a few months ago, so reading this book meant entering a familiar universe. I liked that!
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

P.S. My book reader's heart melted when the monastery's library turned out to have a copy of Aristotle's "On Comedy" - "a fake, of course" :-)))))) ( )

After recommendation by a friend, I picked up this novel in a charity shop and have been meaning to read it for a while. I was happy to discover that it was an interesting story with a sympathetic main character and some surprises. The story is set during 1537 at the time when the Dissolution of the monastries is well underway, the smaller ones having already been closed down. I have read quite a few non fiction books about the period so was quite familar with some of the terms used, but I think it is fairly clearly set out for anyone who wasn't accustomed to reading about the period.

Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer in the employ of Thomas Cromwell, at the time at the height of his power. However, Cromwell is having to take a more softly softly approach because closure of the monastic houses in the north led to an uprising, known to history as the Pilgrimage of Grace, and so to avoid more trouble, Cromwell is using pressure and blackmail to persuade the larger monasteries to 'surrender', that is, to voluntarily close in return for pensions for the abbot and monks (but not the lay servants who will all be turned out on the road). This seems to have gone drastically awry at one establishment where the Commissioner sent to apply this pressure has been dramatically murdered by beheading. Shardlake, accordingly, is sent to the monastery with his sidekick Mark, to take up the task and to investigate the murder.

The story is quite deliberately claustrophobic, set in the dead of winter with the monastery cut off by snow drifts after Shardlake and Mark arrive. The community is made up of thirty monks and sixty servants, but the story focuses on a small number: mainly the leading members of the community but also a few of their underlings. There are quite a few nasty undercurrents and several people during the course of the story come under suspicion, with Shardlake's hopes of finding the culprit being raised and dashed more than once. Meanwhile, more murders and other criminal acts follow and even the relationship between Shardlake and Mark begins to fracture.

I liked the realistic setting and attitudes in this story. Shardlake is a reformer, sharing Cromwell's zeal, at the beginning, but in the course of the book begins to question things he once took at face value. I had expected that the setup of Shardlake and Mark would be a format for later volumes, so was surprised how the relationship actually developed. There are some interesting characters, such as the Moorish infirmarian (physician) and his assistant who, being a woman who speaks out on occasion, is disparaged by more than one of the monks. The attitudes of the period against women, homosexual men, and people with disabilities are well portrayed. And it was interesting to see the more traditional portrayal of Cromwell as opposed to the sympathetic recent one in 'Wolf Hall'.

The story does go against some of the things I'd read before: the monastic houses were providers of charity, lodgings, and medical treatment, and a lot of this fell upon the ratepayers with their loss, leading to the creation of Workhouses by the time of Elizabeth, but here the monks are not integral in the local community and their charity is very meagre indeed. Far from loved, they are actually viewed with suspicion, distrust and downright hatred - but then, the course of the story reveals that very bad things have been happening which are directly linked to some of the monks, so perhaps that is not surprising.

One thing I had some problems with was the explanation of how the characters went from one building to another within the monastery. Early on, one or two descriptions of this seemed to contradict the plan of the monastery at the front of the book, especially as there was meant to be no access between the infirmary and other places. So I found that a bit confusing.

Overall though I enjoyed the story and would award it 4 stars. ( )

« Alcune cose che la natura non sa fare l'arte le fa, altre invece le imita. »
(Aristotele, Poetica)
(dalle prime righe di Wikipedia)


L’influenza di Eco si sente, sebbene sia una eco piuttosto lontana: chiaramente Sansom non lo raggiunge e resta al livello, ad esempio, della trasposizione cinematografica de Il nome della rosa.


E tu dici: “Che cosa sa Dio?
Puo’ giudicare attraverso la caligine?
Fitte nubi gli fanno velo e non vede
E sulla volta dei cieli passeggia”. (Giobbe)
(250)


Nella mia ostinata cecita’, mi ero rifiutato di comprendere quanto avevo davanti agli occhi. Quanto noi uomini temiamo il caos del mondo e l’immensita’ della vita eterna. Cosi’ formuliamo congetture che possano spiegarne i terribili misteri, convincendoci di porci al sicuro in questo mondo e nell’altro.
(373)
( )

This book came highly recommended to me. The author did a wonderful job of creating conflicted characters that drew me further into the story. His writing brings to live the tumultuous time of Reformation. Icant wait to read the next book in the series ( )

recommended by AP English list serv

Historical mystery
Henry 8th

Re- Read August 2018 and now I will continue with the series


Original review Jan 2012
Really enjoyed this. Look forward to reading the other books in the series. ( )

Gad. How did we ever make it through our history?

This was an interesting foray into a time I don't know much about, so I'm taking it on faith that it was accurately portrayed. The setting and characters were deep and well drawn. The actual mystery was a bit banal in the end, and at times the story dragged. But it was still definitely worth reading. I plan to read more of this series. ( )

Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell... you could call this Disillusionment. Our detective hero starts thinking that Reform is going to fix the ills of society, but slowly comes to realize that the people on both sides are pretty much equivalent, for better and worse.

Bloodshed, chasing, falling, secret passageways, the works. A perfectly competent page turner. Plus enough details about a crucial time in history... educational entertainment!

Oh yeah, a tip of the hat to Umberto Eco in here, a copy of Aristotle's On Comedy, long thought lost, is in the monastery library! ( )

Excellent novel set in the English Reformation. ( )

Delighted with this unexpected find which I picked up recently. Didn't think I could face another Tudor novel, but this one is quite different, much more Name of the Rose than Wolf Hall. Would definitely read more in this series. ( )

This audiobook was an abridged version which I regret since it was very entertaining. I wished the audiobook was the entire novel. I know publishers of books of longer length have included additional CDs cover the entire work. This was a fast-paced book and funny to listen to. The narrator’s (Simon Jones, there are several English language narrators on different editions) character voices seemed improvised, but I loved them as they gave an interesting contrast to the serious historical setting of the unfolding murder mystery. Audiobooks are interesting to me as to how they can use a single narrator for a book’s exposition. A few historical facts were included which increased my desire to learn more about King Henry VIII and Cromwell. I already have a few related books, I just need time to get to them. In England, the entire church was taken by Henry VIII as the church’s new head (Anglican as opposed to Roman) and the many abbey and religious house possessions were claimed by him and given as prizes to Henry’s own supporters. This novel takes place after Henry VIII had fixed his attention on the wealth of the smaller churches and abbeys and features the monastery Scarnsea abbey as the book’s location. I don’t think Scarnsea is an actual name of a medieval religious house. I could be wrong.
A physical book would probably have had a map of the fictional abbey which would have been useful to refer to. No map was included in the audiobook. ( )

Set at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the fictional Scarnsea monastery. Really enjoyed this historical murder mystery. Definitely want to read other ones in the series... ( )

I think I have gone off historical fiction for the moment - way too much exposition. Exposition is annoying me at the moment. I'd much rather read something written at the time.

So my review is not reflection on the quality of writing here, just my own (possibly temporary) impatience with historical fiction. Though I did think everything was tied up a bit too neatly at the end, ( )

I’m glad I didn’t give up on this when I first tried it and couldn’t get into it. This time, I couldn’t put it down.

The book is a good mixture of historical fact and mystery fiction, with theological controversies of the period mixed in. Many historical novels taking place during this time period gloss over the religious controversies of the time, as many modern readers might find such discussions foreign or even off-putting. I was glad to find this author included such discussions as part of the plot and the development of the characters.

The plot itself was slightly predictable; I did pick the murderer of the commissioner early on. But, there was enough development in the plot to make me second-guess my prediction more than once.

I am looking forward to continuing the series. ( )

A poor imitation of The Name of the Rose ( )

I've come rather late to this popular series. The book is now nineteen-years-old and the series is seven books strong. Worse than that, this book has been on my shelves for NINE YEARS (that's the curse of keeping a book database, you know stuff like this and can't hide behind I've had this for a while.)

Anyway, my wife and I finally listened to 'Dissolution' on a long drive and now I have to buy the other six books.

So, what's good about it?

Firstly, Sansom is completely comfortable with both the day-to-day life and the power politics of the Tudor period and he doesn't sugar-coat either. This isn't a nostalgia trip to jolly Olde England, it's a journey through a time of immense social turmoil when many of our current aristocracy and landed gentry established their wealth through the ruthless pursuit of land being taken from the monasteries by the King. Sansom makes it easy to visualise London as the pit it was in 1537. He mercilessly displays the thuggery and corruption of Thomas Cromwell and his Commissioners. He also shows how the monasteries had decayed into places that benefitted only the monks who live in them and who lived dissolute lives of indulgence that were far from the Rules of the Orders they were in.



Finally, there's the mystery. It's a good one. One of Cromwell's Commissioners, on a mission to force the Abbot of ancient Scarsea Monastery to agree to dissolve the monastery and transfer the lands to the King, has been decapitated in the monastery and the altar has been desecrated by the sacrifice of a black cockerel. Cromwell gives Shardlake a commission to keep the murder quiet, find the murderer and get the abbot's agreement to dissolution as quickly and quietly as possible. What follows is a twisty plot with more than one death, lots of suspects and a surprising amount of physical conflict.

It was a very entertaining read. I can see why this series is so popular and I will now join the ranks of the faithful following Shardlake's career through King Henry's bloody reign (the man had 57,000 people executed, including almost anyone who was ever a trusted advisor) and beyond.
( )

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Have read a lot about Tudor England but not much about the dissolution of the monasteries. Got both an intriguing murder mystery and a good idea of what it must have been like to be at a monastery during this time. Look forward to reading more books in this series. ( )

Good yarn set in Henry VIII’s time, with our protagonist Shardlake a hunchback lawyer investigating a murder in a monastery at the behest of Thomas Cromwell, Henry's powerful chief minister. The monasteries are corrupt and many religious orders have lost their way, forgetting their vows of poverty and chastity. Cromwell is waging a campaign to have them closed and for the crown to inherit their wealth and most importantly their lands, which was the most important source of all income. Plausible tale with lots of three dimensional characters that keeps you guessing until the very end. ( )