... a strong and intelligent novel which, while it will certainly please historical crime fans, deserves a wider readership.

Sansom appears to have entirely beaten the second novel blues.

Steeped in the sights, sounds and smells of one of the most fascinating periods in history...

It's 1540, three years after Shardlake's mission to Scarnsea. It is the hottest summer of the sixteenth century. Shardlake is trying to keep a low profile, believing himself to be out of favour with Thomas Cromwell but trying to maintain his London-based legal practice. He has been pulled, against his better judgement, into defending Elizabeth Wentworth, charged with murdering her cousin. But Elizabeth refuses to plead either guilty or not guilty. As a result she will be crushed under weights until she pleads or dies. Shardlake is powerless to help the girl yet she is suddenly granted a reprieve - courtesy of Cromwell. The cost of the reprieve to Shardlake is two weeks once again in the service of Cromwell. Cromwell, however, is no longer the triumphant, irresistible force he once was, not least because of the ill-fated marriage he arranged for the King with Anne of Cleves. Cromwell is running out of options, but he has one more card to play: Greek Fire, an ancient weapon considered lost long ago, which has turned up again in the hands of two alchemist brothers. This is the kind of gift to guarantee the King's favour, it is also the kind of gift that people kill for...

2008-08-29 Brilliant

I have just finished this book and, after Dissolution, I am well and truly addicted to this series. I really like the lead character of Matthew Shardlake and the other characters in this and the previous book. Will be starting on Sovereign asap and can't wait to read Revelation from what I've read on Amazon about that story. There seems to be a plethora of murder-thriller type books set in the 15th-16th century around at the moment but this is without doubt the best of them all.