Sovereign by C J Sansom

[EC2]

The third in C.J.Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series. Although it is a historical whodunnint, don't let that put you off if you are not a whodunnit sort of person. This is excellent all round historical fiction and Sansom is a very accomplished novelist indeed.
What's it about?
'Autumn 1541 and Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to attend an extravagant submission by his rebellious subjects in York'.
Matthew Shardlake is in York himself because as a lawyer he has been employed to process local petitions to the King. He has also, reluctantly, agreed to keep his eye on the welfare of an important but dangerous prisoner - at Archbishop Cranmer's request.
When a York glazier (employed in stripping stained glass from church windows as part of the Dissolution), is murdered, Shardlake finds himself caught up in the investigation and the waters get very muddy and very bloody very quickly! There are certain papers doing the rounds that could threaten the King's very right to rule and more suspects than the reader can shake a stick at. As a sideline to the main thread, Queen Katherine Howard is under suspicion of carrying on with the young men of the court and Shardlake becomes embroiled in this too, much to his concern and to his detriment.
Sovereign is a highly entertaining and satisfying historical novel, but it's not for the squeamish. It does involve some scenes of torture and a rather nasty description of how a prisoner goes about poisoning himself without his gaolors finding out. That's not a complaint but an observation for anyone thinking about reading this book. You know your own squeam level! It is gritty and dark. It's also excellent. 5 stars at the high end of 5 stars!

[Leo62]

Glad you enjoyed this EC. I've loved the whole Shardlake series, but this one's my favourite. It combines elements of whodunnit, political thriller and quality historical fiction, seemlessly blended into a satisfying tale. And most satisfying of all Sansom's creations is the sympathetic, intelligent and vulnerable character of Matthew Shardlake.

Funny, I don't remember it being all that gory, apart from a certain incident involving shards of stained glass...

The next book in the series, Heartstone, is due out in September. :D

[EC2]

Leo, I was hoping it was going to be out sooner for my DH's birthday in May. I buy them as pressies for him, then get to read them later! Never mind, it will do for Christmas.
I agree with everything you say. I used to love mysteries a la Cadfael, but I've moved on from them a bit. So it's good to have something like this which has the mystery element but is so much more. It's like a historical novel that just happens to have a mystery involved. I liked the development of Barak and Tamsin in this one too. I'd love to see these televised!

[Leo62]

I'd love to see these televised!

Me too :D There was talk a while back of an adaptation starring Kenneth Branagh, but then he went off to do Wallander. :(

[cw gortner]

I love these books, too. His last one Revelation was not as well received but I thought it was the creepiest one yet, with a Biblically inspired serial killer and a deranged youth trapped in an asylum. Shardlake faces some very difficult moments and realizations in it.

I'm looking forward to Heartstone.

[annis]

It was the stolen teeth that got me in Revelation. Imagine going around clacking someone elses's teeth in wooden moulds- errk! Not to mention the poor people who woke up toothless--

I really enjoyed a Sansom short story recently in one of the Medieval Murderers series. The MM are a collective of historical mystery writers who choose a theme and each contribute a story based on for for their hist myst books. In this one Sansom sets his piece in a world post-climate change disaster, and its climax takes place in New Zealand (or at least the bits of it still above sea level :) In which Sansom proves he's equally adept at writing excellent futuristic fiction as well as HF.

[EC2]

I've got something to look forward to then C.W. and Annis - LOL! I have Revelation on the bookshelf but I don't like to go into an author one after the other. I like to take a break of several books in between, so I'll probably come back to Revelation in a couple of months, and then read Heartstone after the DH - i.e. after Christmas!

[Madeleine]

I've come across the wooden dentures before, can't remember what book it was but an old lady was quite cheerfully wearing someone else's teeth, I think it was fairly common practice in those days - in fact I've got a feeling that it might have been the grandmother in "Dark Fire" who had the teeth. And annis, if I remember rightly, they weren't averse to stealing teeth from corpses to make up dentures!

[cw gortner]

Ugh, that's right! I'd forgotten the dentures. I remember vividly that scene in the hut by the Thames, when they find one of the victims - it was like something out of the movie "Seven."

[Eigon]

I've just finished Dark Fire and it was, indeed, the grandmother who had the wooden false teeth.
Now looking out for the rest of the series....

[Rowan]

I'm so glad someone started a thread on this book!!! Many thanks EC!!

My friend in England started me on this series and I just finished Sovreign last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it as well as the others in the series because I like the MC. I like that he's so determined to do things right even though it can get him into trouble.

I am very intrigued by the legend mentioned in the book. Can anyone shed further light on this? Was it real? How much truth was there in it?

[annis]

Do you mean the Mouldwarp story? I believe that it was an adaptation of one of the Prophecies of Merlin (http://www.crystalinks.com/merlin.html), concocted by Geoffrey of Monmouth, like the Arthurian legends, out of various bits and pieces of Welsh folktales.

In the Prophecies there is mention of the Mouldwarp, but it doesn't specifically mention Henry - that was a later addition made by those who had no reason to love Henry.

According to the verse prophecy, a certain king would be the Mole or Mouldwarp, a hairy man with a hide like goatskin whose fate it was first to be greatly praised by his people, then " cast down with sin and with pride." After his fall, the Mouldwarp was to "lead all his life/In war and in trouble and in much strife," condemned by the vengeance of God to wage a losing battle for his kingdom. In the end he would go down to defeat amid scenes of gore and destruction - his castles fallen, the rivers red with the blood of his vanquished armies, the very hills sundered in two with dread - and would flee like a coward to end his life in exile on a lonely island. England would be finally given over to the Mouldwarp's enemies, and would be knows thereafter as "the land of conquest."

Despite them being fiction, the English kings took the stories of Arthur and the Prophecies of Merlin very seriously. Edward I (http://midgleywebpages.com/edward1.html) was so obsessed with the Arthurian stories that he even had his own Round Table built. In her novel, Insurrection, Robyn Young bases part of her story on a secret Prophecy of Merlin which Edward is determined to fulfill. Edward did in fact believe that he should emulate Arthur by attempting to unite Britain- one reason for his vigorous campaigns against the Welsh and the Scots. Henry VII was also convinced by the Arthurian basis to his genealogical legitimacy, even naming his oldest son Arthur, and Henry VIII also used the legend to justify his claim to the throne.

[Rowan]

Thank you annis. I was mainly wondering whether the "prophecy" itself was real or a product of the author's invention. Thanks for clearing that up.

[annis]

The prophecies do exist but were made up, though people did (and some still do!) take them as being genuine. There were all sorts of complicated calculations made to work out who the Mouldwarp would be- I think the theory was that the Mouldwarp would be the sixth king after King John or some such. As Henry was (I think) the twelfth king after John, the Henry as Mouldwarp idea didn't match up anyway.