‘Dissolution’ is author C.J. Sanson’s debut novel featuring Master Matthew Shardlake, an attorney who serves the infamous reformer Lord Thomas Cromwell in the year 1536. I confess to not knowing very much about the Reformation period other than what I learned on Masterpiece Theater and films like ‘Anne of A Thousand Days.’ My Catholic grammar school history classes were, not surprisingly, willing to skip those significant chapters in church history.
The Reformation period is arguably just as much of a central character as Shardlake, his protege Mark Poer, and the cast of monks and servants at the struggling monastery at Scarnsea where the story unfolds. The historical backdrop is that of King Henry VIII and Cromwell’s relatively swift process of dismantling and closing the giant machine of monasteries that dominated England’s economy.
Tasked with investigating the gruesome murder of one of Cromwell’s commissioners at Scarnsea, Shardlake’s loyalty to The Reformation and belief that the enormous wealth of the monastery system will be equitably divided becomes as murky as the dangerous surrounding marshlands used by smugglers and a cast of nefarious suspects.
Matthew Shardlake is haunted by personal losses, his own physical deformity and he often admits to being confused, exhausted and fearful. It’s a refreshing portrayal of how hard it has always been to be a hero in times of corruption and conflict. Some things never change.
Looking for more? There are seven titles in the Shardlake series; Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation, Tombland.