Sansom's description of the brutality of Tudor life is strong stuff, but he is a master storyteller.

We all know what it’s like to anticipate something so much that we are literally shaking with excitement. He was born in 1952 and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history.Cierto es que la quinta estrella es raspada, pero no menos cierto es que lo he disfrutado mucho y se las merece. Atmosphere abounds in this marvelously drawn novel, which essentially is all about conspiracies to unseat King Henry, centered on resistance to his dynasty and his Protestantism, which were both unpopular in the North.

Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation.This, of course, is due to his being a hunchback and a “southron,” but also to his being a member of the professional class. This is the best Shardlake book so far, as Sansom balances historical intrigue with detail and excitement. As revolutionary Protestants attempt to wipe out the old religion, the Protector's lengthy war with Scotland has brought the country’s economy to its knees.

The scene opens not on Matthew Shardlake, Sansom’s lawyer-detective protagonist, but on a centuries-old local theatrical tradition: the York Mystery Plays, performed on wagons by city guildswomen. After Shardlake’s protector, Cromwell, is killed, life seems to resume its usual pace for the lawyer.Set in the autumn of 1541, the novel describes fictional events surrounding Henry VIII's 'Progress' to the North (a state visit accompanied by the royal court and its attendants, the purpose of which was to accept the formal surrender from those who had rebelled during the Pilgrimage of Grace). Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and The Light, Matthew Shardlake is back in the sixth book in the Shardlake series, from number one bestselling author C. Things however get interesting when a plot against the King is exposed in York, and the subject whose welfare Shardlake was ensuring is linked to the murder of a local glazer. There is the sadistic jailer, Radwinter, Jennet Marlin, a member of the Queen’s servants, young Tamasin Reedbourne, who catches Barak’s eye, Lady Rochester – former wife of George Boleyn – the new young Queen Catherine, who is way out of her depth, the arrogant young men who surround her, including Culpepper and Dereham, and the elderly lawyer, Giles Wrenne, who befriends Shardlake. Q. Shardlake is often viewed with suspicion if not outright hostility by many of the characters in Sovereign.