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Dissolution (Shardlake)
 
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Dissolution (Shardlake) (Hardcover)

by C.J. Sansom (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (99 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Macmillan (20 Jun 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1405005424
  • ISBN-13: 978-1405005425
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (99 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 320,611 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #21 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > S > Sansom, C.J.

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Product Description

The Tablet, August 2003
...the ending is particularly satisfying: guilt is unmasked, but at the same time, as in life, unfinished business remains.

Product Description
It is 1537 and Thomas Cromwell has ordered that all monastries should be dissolved. Cromwell's Comissioner is found dead, his head severed from his body. Dr Shardlake is sent to uncover the truth behind what has happened. His investigation forces him to question everything that he himself believes.

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Customer Reviews

99 Reviews
5 star:
 (59)
4 star:
 (23)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (6)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (99 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great mystery novel from the time of Henry VIII, 11 Aug 2003
By D. Proctor "dproc2001" (Kendal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This novels centres around a series of mysterious deaths that occur in a religious house during the time of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Although it is primarily of novel of detection it also explores in a very impressive way, many of the themes that surround the time including the corruption in the monsteries and some of the hardship surrounding the dissolution. I know that this is an excellent novel because I did not want it to end. The author evokes the time and place in which the story is set beautifully and draws some very interesting, complex and ultimately likeable characters indeed. I liked the fact that the author was balanced in his attitude to the period - neither the reformers nor the monk supporters are perfect. I much preferred the story to The Name of the Rose to which it can be compared. I found it more credible and more atmospheric. Not bad for a first novel. The investigator is a hunchback who works under the auspices of Thomas Cromwell but who finds himself questioning some of the methods the reformers use to carry out their tasks. He also has a young assistant who gets friendly with a young woman who works at the monastery - much to the hunchback's dissaproval and jealousy. All this adds to the story. I wholeheartedly recommend this to any lover of historical novels or mystery novels. It ranks very highly in both these categories. I am delighted to know that the author is going to write a sequel!
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74 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Historically rooted, gripping story, a whodunnit with real verve, 12 April 2007
By Mark Meynell "quaesitor" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Dissolution (Shardlake) (Paperback)
To begin with i thought this was just a pastiche of Eco's Name of the Rose: Monastery in winter, dodgy monks, murders and a beautiful young girl with an unusual detective plus honourable apprentice (even Aristotle's lost work On Comedy makes an appearance). But this is set a few centuries later and is firmly rooted in the Tudor terrors at the time of Dissolution of the Monasteries. National politics and the reformation are the sword of Damocles that hang over the monastery throughout. What is so exciting and satisfying is the way (rather like Eco did) that national politics and scandals are interwoven naturally into the goings on in this remote monastery on the South Coast. Henry VIII exists as an invisible presence throughout; the nearest we get to him is his ruthless and foul henchman, Thomas Cromwell. But his lethal authority and whims are stamped on every page.

The hero of the piece is Matthew Shardlake who finds himself having to do Cromwell's bidding. He is a believable character, idealistic but flawed, given to blindspots and jealousies - but he acknowledges all these, especially as he recognises that to have remained neutral could have helped find the culprits sooner and thus prevented more deaths.

This is a great read - and brings a dark chapter of England's history to life. There are no easy answers - and the rights and wrongs of the period are not so categorically stated that the reader is drawn inevitably to either 'papists' or 'reformers'. A tour de force.
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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Muder in the Monastary, 3 Mar 2005
By Mrs. D. J. Smith "eowyngreenleaf" (Luton, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Dissolution (Shardlake) (Paperback)
I'd had this book for a while, it was one I'd picked up in a publishers clearance shop. I thought it looked as if it might be OK to amuse myself for a few hours at some point. Now I have finally got around to reading it, I'm sorry I didn't read it before! It's well written, feels historically authentic and there are excellent characters and a really gripping mystery to boot! It's interesting that the 'hero', Commissioner Matthew Shardlake, is a hunchback and is sent to investigate the brutal murder of an official in a monastery, around about the time Henry VIII and Cromwell are starting to dissolve the monasteries, with the lesser ones already having gone. At this period, any physical impairment was seen as a judgement from God on that individual, so our hero has prejudice to struggle against on top of everything else! A really good read it put me a little in mind of Sharon Penman's Justin de Quincy books - highly recommended! Probably not for the squeamish though - it's a bit graphic in places.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tudor world brought to life.
I came upon this book quite by accident (having picked it up in a charity shop) I absolutely love the Tudor period in English history and although I don't normally enjoy crime... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Martin Belcher

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Read in only a few days, couldn't put it down. Well drawn - you feel you really are part of this world. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Rev. Joseph N. Adams

5.0 out of 5 stars loved it!
This is first book in the tales of the Henry VIII era lawyer Shardlake and is an excellent addition to the historic fiction genre (surpassing Cornwell in my opinion). Read more
Published 20 days ago by J. Butler

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific murder mystery
One of the most enjoyable books I have read for a long time. Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer, Reformist and unlikely hero who investigates the murder of Cromwells commissioner... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Andrew J. Bennett

4.0 out of 5 stars dissolution (Shardlake)
really good story. Lots of interesting history. A who-dun-it mystery from the era of Henry 8th. I would really recomend it.
Published 1 month ago by L. M. Mclean

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical murder mystery
Thomas Cromwell has a problem; his programme for the dissolution of the monasteries has already encountered a successful armed rebellion in the North and now one of his feared... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mick Read

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Detective Drama
C J Sansom's Dissolution is an historical detective drama set during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monastries. Read more
Published 1 month ago by S. Loddick

4.0 out of 5 stars The Hunchback of Notre Passé
Matthew Shardlake, sent by Thomas Cromwell to solve a murder at a monastery on the coast of Sussex, may come to hold a place among the most credible of fictional detectives... Read more
Published 1 month ago by G. M. Sinstadt

5.0 out of 5 stars 16th Century Lives Again!
Get to know the barrister Shardlake and you'll want to read all the subsequent titles.Here we have the machinations of Cromwell in all their
darkness,drawn so vividly that... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bluebeat

5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking!
I have devoured all of the Shardlake novels by C J Sanson, and they are all absolutely cracking reads. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. S. J. Jones

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