Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake 5)

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J. Sansom’s writing raises the sense of Tudor England from the pages, creating vivid images of the scenes in the reader’s mind. For example, Shardlake spends quite a bit of time in a manor house that teems with dark secrets and hidden threats. The year is 1545 and Henry VIII is pursuing his war with the French even though it has emptied his coffers and impoverishing his people with ever increasing crippling taxes.

The unusual case of Ellen Fettisplace, an inmate of Bedlam is still on his mind as he and Ellen have become friends and he decides to make enquiries in her home village on his way to Hampshire. His interest in Ellen Fettiplace, 35yo resident of The Bedlam asylum, is complicated by her romantic attraction to him, and he feels guilty that he cannot reciprocate. Even though the books seem to be get larger as this series grows, I enjoyed every page of this mystery series set in Tudor England. With such a remarkable cast of characters, Sansom had to put them through extremely difficult obstacles to test their limits and to give his readers a breathtaking look into the Tudor world. He sees at first hand the English flotilla of warships, including the King's favourite vessel, the Mary Rose.

It’s an arduous, miserable journey, cold, wet, muddy, and the roads are full of soldiers and goods headed for Portsmouth to fend off the anticipated French invasion. Like in the other novels in the series that I’ve read, Shardlake’s first-person narration is written in a way that has a bit of a historical flavour but is “matter of fact” enough to be extremely readable.

Too much description of costume, of weaponry, and mind-numbing detail of Portsmouth in preparation for battle, and of the Mary Rose itself.When we rode out into Oyster Street it was already lined with soldiers, helmets and halberds brightly polished, waiting for the King.

The only reason he has left his wife and about-to-born baby at home is that being assigned to this case keeps him out of the army. Of all the books in the series, the outstanding Dissolution was the one that hooked me, and Revelation the one that still haunts me. Firstly, the Queen’s mission to solve a case in The Court of Wards and the second one, his own, to uncover the truth behind why a young girl, Ellen, had been placed in Bedlam.Henry VIII is aging and becoming more irrational regarding his escapades against the French that achieve nothing other than reducing the population of young men on both sides. Out at sea the ships stood waiting, great streamers in Tudor green and white, perhaps eighty feet long, fluttering gently from the topmasts. Though he is settling into married life, Barak still has his fighting spirit that leads him into trouble at times. The BBC have commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution with the actor Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. That town is abuzz with threats of invasion by the French, and the military build-up has begun, with the conscription of men and the gathering of equipment and supplies.