Sovereign (Shardlake)

I have not read any other works by the author so for me this is the first time I've met the character. The cover caught my attention, and as I enjoy detective novels and historical fiction, this looked the book for me.

The basic storyline is that our central character, a lawyer, is ordered to assist with some legal proceedings which take place during Henry VIII's progress to the north or more particularly York. The place in time is just after the great Northern Rebellion and during his marriage to the young and flakey Katherine Howard. The lawyer accidentally discovers some documents in a box, which as they implicate the legitimacy of the King's right to be king are highly contentious, as a result of the discovery there are attempts on his life. The detective component is his un-covering of not only the meaning and importance of the documents ,of which he only read a small part, but also who is behind the attempts on his life.

As a historical novel I felt there was not enough development of the themes behind the rebellion or the motives of Henry VIII and that means the surrounding characters are a little wooden, and, therefore not totally convincing. This area of our past is somewhat difficult to comprehend as those days of religious fervor are somewhat remote and complex. The major themes are brushed over and the daily grime and grot of Tudor England was also not conveyed so it didn't make me feel what it was like to be alive then. There were some fascinating insights into how the progress worked on a day to day basis trundling slowly like a giant greedy insect through England eating and devouring as it went on its merry way. As a detective/thriller it doesn't work that well as there is simply not enough action. The incidents as they occur are very few and far between with the filler being the descriptions of the progress, the surrounding characters and fat, bloated Henry hovering, menacingly somewhere in the background. I kept on faithfully reading each day waiting for the big crime but it never came. And most disappointingly half way through it became obvious to me who the culprit was and I kept on wanting to shout out its them, its them.

I did however faithfully read through right to the end as to be fair to the author I was interested enough to want to read how all the loose ends were tied together. The last 20 pages where its all explained are more captivating but ultimately I was not grabbed by the characters or story.

The best Shardlake yet. (1/1 people found this helpful)

Having read the previous Matthew Shardlake novels I was eager to read this one. I wasn't disappointed - it is easily the best one yet.

What I liked most was the brilliant evocation of the cruelty of Tudor England. The religious fanaticism has been done before, as has the treachery and power politics along with the corruption, but the way these were all melded together and the thorny subject of judicial torture thrown in it made the story basically become a lot darker.

The idea of the events taking place within the enclosed world of the Royal Progress was a nice way of taking a murder mystery staple plot device and making it relevant to the period, a kind of Tudor "Murder on the Orient Express" if you like.

CL Sansom is a very good writer, he keeps the suspense up well and uses a lot of period detail. overall excellent, although I have to admit working out who the killer was quite a way before the end, even if I hadn't worked out exactly all the details.

Very Disappointing! (1/3 people found this helpful)

most of the positive reviews of this book must be coming from C.J.Sansom fans and in fairness the first two and the fourth novel of the Shradlake series are brilliant.
This third sequel though appears to have been part of a publisher's deal that had to be written without the author's heart in it.
The story is dragging on endlessly without many peaks, Shardlake is completely out of his wits and not himself. There are MANY mistakes like one minute he is riding, next sentence he is not, then he decides to wear a dagger in future and only the following sentence he is wearing one without having had the opportunity to obtain it. There are dozens of those minor mistakes which really annoy me especially since they appear within 2 subsequent sentences. This book is badly written and the story of stale. You can safely skip this one and proceed with 4th sequel.

Great stuff, a little too long (3/3 people found this helpful)

This third entry in the Shardlake series is as detailed and vivid as the previous two entries. The plot is rather convoluted and I found it a little implausible, though I was aware of the Blaybourne allegations from my reading of Yorkist history, and, of course, it must be admitted that Tudor history is replete with true occurrences that the most fanciful historical novelist would hardly dare invent (would a novelist ever invent the story of Henry VIII's six wives? no, it would probably be too implausible to make up!). I also thought this one was rather too long at 650 pages and I got just a tiny little bit tired of chapter after chapter ending with Shardlake bumping into one of his antagonists coming round the corner yet again. But this was all more than compensated for by the last 100 pages, full of such drama, horror and twists and turns that, in the words on the front cover of my edition, made me unable to prise myself from it.

Pedant's Corner (1/2 people found this helpful)

I like the Shardlake books: the let a person while away a week of winter evenings and painlessly absorb some history at the same time. This one, though, wasn't quite up to scratch. Sometimes the psychological reality slips (such as when Shardlake has a tooth tortured out of him: I felt I was more bothered by it than he was). And I kept feeling that some of the details just didn't quite ring true... and then we set sail from Hull, and the whole book promptly lost all credibility.

Warning: pedantic rant follows:
I'm no expert sailor, but I have gadded about a bit on the briny. On Planet Earth, you tack when the wind is blowing out of the quarter into which you wish to travel. On Planet Shardlake, you tack because of light winds. Er, no. Tack in light winds, and you can come to a standstill.

Then they went all the way up the Orwell to Ipswich to get their rudder fixed, when they could have put in to Harwich which is conveniently on the coast. Then it took them four days, with favourable winds, to get themselves from Ipswich to London. Even allowing for the lumbering design of Tudor ships, I can't imagine it would take that long. A Victorian working vessel, sails, no engine, built for handiness and cargo capacity and many other things besides raw speed, can hammer from the mouth of the Thames to halfway up the Orwell in less than seven hours, if there's a strong blow on her side.

Mistakes like this spoil a book for me, as they make me doubt all the facts that I don't know and can't check. That's not to say that I won't read the next Shardlake, but I'll be taking some of the details with a pinch of salt.

Sovereign (Shardlake)

C.J. Sansom

Reader Reviews:

Diverting but doesn't cut the mustard (1/3 people found this helpful)

The best Shardlake yet. (1/1 people found this helpful)

Very Disappointing! (1/3 people found this helpful)

Great stuff, a little too long (3/3 people found this helpful)

Pedant's Corner (1/2 people found this helpful)

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