Sovereign (The Shardlake series, 3)

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The Mary Rose - Henry VIII's warship, lost in 1545, recovered in 1982 and now on display in a dedicated museum in Portsmouth for everyone to visit all year round All purchases made help contribute to the preservation and conservation of the Mary Rose and the 19,000 objects that were recovered from the seabed.

I am eager that I gave the series another chance and want to get to the core of the Sansom reading experience, with Matthew Shardlake at its centre.Shardlake is always noticeably avoided because of his hunched back, but Jack Barak can move in and out of pubs and chat to the locals. And when Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret papers which could threaten the Tudor throne, a chain of events unfolds that will lead Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age . This is the first Shardlake book that I have struggled with slightly but I am glad I persevered with it as I really enjoyed the book, especially the ending. After Shardlake’s protector, Cromwell, is killed, life seems to resume its usual pace for the lawyer.

Arriving in York, Shardlake senses that things may not be as troubling as Cranmer posited, seeing a community ready to celebrate with their King. Shardlake barely has time to look at the documents before they are stolen again, but the little bit of knowledge he has gained puts his own life at risk. Please remember it can take some time for your bank or credit card company to process and post the refund too. It was pretty obvious and a little disappointing, but Sansom was still clever enough with how he integrated it to keep me reading.

Yes, bones hanging from a loft where a man had died slowly, in chains, and finally been picked clean, while various body parts of other miscreants (or just someone who was out of favour at the wrong time) decorate bridges and pikes and fences everywhere. The novel is by no means out of the realm of any reader, though its depth and analysis can sometimes give it a ‘deeper’ and more ‘intense’ feel. I was in York for a few nights last year and recognise many of the landmarks encountered which is particularly engaging but they are all described so well that anyone will be able to visualise what Shardlake and Barak experience.