Heartstone: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery (Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mysteries)

How long can Shardlake keep going? Well at times reading this I felt that maybe the author was tiring a little perhaps. It's a slow burner for many many pages and you may find yourself stuck for motivation at times. Persevere though and you will get the typically exciting climaxes to the mysteries

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Shardlake is compelled to solve. Sometimes there just maybe a little too much historical details at the expense of the storyline. Not the best in the series it has to be said.

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***Warning - May contain spoiler***

Very good, just not as good as some of the earlier books in the same series. The pace is quite slow for at least the first half, although the evocation of the sights, sounds, smells and attitudes of the period are as strong as ever. There is much more drama in the

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last hundred or so pages. The resolutions to the two mysteries are a little implausible.

I also have reservations about whether Sansom has this time overstepped the mark in involving a real historical character in fictional events. By all accounts Richard Rich was a nasty piece of work, who used the religious and political upheavals of the Henrician era to resolutely pursue his own self-advancement. Nevertheless, to make him an accessory to one of the most heinous crimes that could be committed, then or now, is perhaps going too far. The best historical fiction brings to life known historical truths and uses invented characters to speculate about what we do not know, whilst being scrupulous in the use of real historical figures. Previous books in this series seemed to me to better observe this disctinction, though I do know at least one Henry VIII fan who believes the Shardlake books are too hostile to him.

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CJ Sansom has done it again. A marvellous story interweaving two mysteries for Shardlake with Henry VIII's war against the French and Richard Rich's machinations. Here we have Catherine Parr, with her monstrous husband dominating the background, asking Matthew to solve a mystery; in addition, our

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lonely hero is determined to find out what happened to Ellen, the young woman he encountered in the Bedlam (in the previous tale). We can almost smell the stink of 16th century London and imagine the horror of the sinking of the Mary Rose.

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What a pleasure to immerse myself again in the world of lawyer Matthew Shardlake. It is summer 1545 and England is under threat of a French invasion. Shardlake is retained by Queen Catherine parr to investigate the welfare of a young boy who was made a ward when his parents died in King Henry's

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Court of Wards. His investigation takes from London him to Portsmouth where the army is gathering for war.
A great read.

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The best Shardlake yet. The plot is well paced, never too rushed that it seems out of sync with the period and not too slow, to stop it from being a page turner. Of course parts are a bit contrived and the predictability that Shardlake would have to be on the Mary Rose when it sank, was

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dissappointingly predictable.
Overall, a very good read, that weaves in a period of Tudor history not much covered - the war footing the country was on, was something I'd not picked up before. I just hope the next one is as good

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In my opinion this fifth installment is not the strongest entry in Sansom's series featuring Tudor-era lawyer Matthew Shardlake. The storyline (which turns on a not-so-surprising plot twist) tends to sag beneath the weight of period detail relating to Henry VIII's disastrous military campaign

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against the French, which in 1545 led to the threat of French invasion and to the tragic sinking before Henry's eyes of the warship Mary Rose. In his acknowledgements at the end of the book Sansom observes that this particular incident has been unaccountably overlooked by historians of the Tudor Age, and remarks that "somebody should" write a history of the war of 1544-46; at times while reading this book I felt that he had come closer to doing that himself than he may have intended!

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Not Sansom's best. It starts off in a cracking mode, and keeps the pace for several hundred pages, but falls flat on its face towards the end. Implausible situations, a narrator increasingly priggish and sanctimonious, with very a very dim sense of judgment, all these elements make for a sense of

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being let down towards the end.

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In really enjoyed this book, the final one in the Shardlake mysteries. I do love the way Sansom ties all the bits and pieces into completion at the very end.

This is #5 in Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series. In 2009 I reviewed DISSOLUTION, the first in the series which I had actually read a year or two earlier. I've been meaning to read more in this series ever since. But I haven't and the fact that I have enjoyed reading this "out of order" is perhaps

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proof that you can dip into the series wherever you can. (Or perhaps I just don't know what I've been missing?) I regret too that this review is of the abridged version of the novel, but you know what they say about gift horses.
HEARTSTONE has strengthened my resolve to read some of the intervening titles.

In DISSOLUTION Matthew Shardlake, a hunch-back lawyer, was doing the work of Thomas Cromwell. Eight years have passed and it is now 1545. Henry VIII has been through a few wives, and the current one is his last, Catherine Parr, who asks Shardlake to undertake an investigation for her. She warns him however that when push comes to shove she may be unable to acknowledge that he is working for her. Thomas Cromwell is long gone and his successor Sir Richard Rich poses a great threat to Shardlake. Defending Shardlake in matters which interest Richard Rich may put the Queen in danger.

Narrator Anton Lesser does an excellent job in bring HEARTSTONE to life. His voice variations help the listener distinguish easily between characters.

While you "know" that this is historical fiction at the same time Sansom manages to embed historical details with great authenticity. I have a passing familiarity with this historical period and the details felt reliable. .

HEARTSTONE came a close second in the 2010 Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction.

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A long, but very good historical crime thriller set in the mid reign of Henry VIII. As always with C J Sansom, his historical research & in particular, his ability to recreate day to day life in these very different historical eras is clearly evident. His prose is easy to read, & you never get the

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feeling that his convoluted plots are difficult to follow. Matthew Shardlake remains his sympathetic self, & is an easy character to sympathise with. Some his adversaries are not what they seem, & the strengths of this are very good. Where it comes into its own, is the last fifth of the book & the involvement with The Mary Rose. This was illuminating & evocative & has put the novel into a unique league. There are some weaknesses though, one again for Sansom, the pacing is weak in places, & whilst the main protagonists seem well drawn, there is a cardboard quality to some of the lesser roles, a common finding in a lot of crime fiction. Overall, to be recommended, if one has some time to get in, get involved, & is able to maintain momentum with what, at 700+ pages, is a longer than average, crime novel.

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Sparely written and well researched, like Sansom's other Shardlake novels this book leaves you with a real feeling of how the politics of Henry VIII's court impacted on those lower down the social hierarchy. Add to that the plot of the book - the two linked apparent cases of wrongdoing being

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investigated by Shardlake - and you have an immensely readable book. The dramatic twist at the end underlines Sansom's skill as a novelist. The references to Shardlake meeting the future Elizabeth 1 seem to hint that the series will continue into the Elizabethan era - hopefully.

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The main theme of this book is an attempt by the lawyer Matthew Shardlake to secure justice for a young man apparently wronged by his guardian, combined with another plot which concerns Shardlake's search for the truth about someone he has tried for years to help. Although you could read this book

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and enjoy it without having read its four predecessors about the lawyer Shardlake, you can only enjoy it fully if you have done so, because one of the two main plot lines draws on events in those books. Overall I think this is the best of the series, with a magnificent sweep covering important events not often written about (the Anglo-French war of 1544-46) with Sansom's usual highly detailed and closely researched descriptions of places, people and institutions. The weaving together of the two plot lines is deft and the book moves towards an exciting climax, with however an epilogue which is positively elegaic. Overall this book makes a lot of other historical fiction/mysetry books look puny by comparison. There are one or two plot improbabilities but nothing outrageous. As usual, Sansom makes clear in an afterword what is true and what he has invented, something other novelists could usefully imitate.

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As with the previous books in the series, this had great description and conveyed well the atmosphere of Tudor life. However, like one or two of the others, it was a bit too long and you get the impression that the plot is rather too drawn out in places. Indeed, this was really two unconnected

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whodunits in one. I also found the resolution of the Hugh Curteys plotline rather unrealistic (no spoilers here). I don't know if C J Sansom is planning to continue this series past the death of Henry VIII, but if he does, I hope these undoubtedly excellent novels are plotted just a little more tightly.

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The latest in Mathew Shardlake series didn't disappoint. There is probably more suspense here than in any of previous novels. Once again, the novel stalls sometime, but it's a minor drawback for me considering the quality of the novel - both entertaining and educational.

While suspenseful and intricate, this Shardlake outing felt more personal and less world-altering. Though he is asked by the new Queen (Katherine Parr) to go and look into an incident involving the Court of Wards, it’s not the ultra-political plot that he usually gets roped into. No Cranmer or

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Cromwell type machinations. And it seems that we got a lot more of the day-to-day life of a person in the 16th century, too. The helplessness the general population felt against military conscription and greedy landlords enclosing forest and pastures, of widows and children shown no mercy or compassion by courts ruled by greed and kickbacks, things like that. And of course Barak and Shardlake have to travel far in this one and it just flat takes forever. There’s a lot of finding inns, carts broken down in the road, soldiers having right of way and bad weather. And Barak’s narrow escape from conscription himself only to be pissed off he’s so far away from Tamesin during the end of this second pregnancy. He routinely ticks Shardlake off for pursuing helpless causes and hopeless cases and not backing off when he’s expressly told to do so. Several times they have sharp words and Shardlake can barely communicate his driving need to ferret out secrets and set things ‘to rights’. I think their relationship has reached a new level of honesty, trust and equality. It’s part of what helps to create the more personal feel of this installment.

Spoilers afoot.

As happens in a lot of mysteries, the two main ones are connected by Shardlake’s involvement. First Hugh’s wardship by the Hobbeys; because Michael the former tutor didn’t actually get deposed or give evidence before he was found hanged (ruled a suicide, but of course it wasn’t), there is only suspicion of fraud. When Shardlake gets to the Hobbey household he senses something wrong and after an escalating series of violent events (omg that dog attack was cringeworthy), he finally ferrets out the truth and lays open the scam. Not before a near miss with an arrow, snarling lawyers, sinister stewards, a death and a bunch of pissed off villagers make a lot of noise about Hobbey enclosing lands. Personally I found that little twist that ensures the scam to be more on the unbelievable side because I know a bit about the long bow and exactly how much upper body strength it takes to be good with one. But, Hugh compared to David was always shown to be the more accurate, not the more powerful archer. And when Hugh runs away, Shardlake follows (and reluctantly, Barak, too) and gets caught up in Richard Rich’s clutches again.

That’s when the second of the three major plotlines gets basically resolved; why is Ellen Fettiplace in the Bedlam, who pays her fees and why is there no order of insanity keeping her there? It breaks down like this; spurned would-be lover Philip West is a low-level courtier of Henry’s. Henry wants to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Ann Boleyn. He writes her a letter stating so which he entrusts to West to deliver. He takes a young lawyer friend with him, but along the way runs into Ellen who still won’t have him. He goes mental and rapes her. His lawyer friend encourages him and actually holds Ellen down. While the deed is being done, he steals the letter and later gives it to Queen Catherine (boy there have been a whole mess of them, haven’t there?) The friend runs off and leaves the raper and the rapee and gets lost in the woods. He ends up at the Fettiplace foundry. The door opens and Ellen stumbled in, yelled rape and the workman Gratick goes for him and after a struggle the place is on fire. Ellen’s father confronts him and get himself stabbed by the friend who then weights him and drops him into the mill pond. The young lawyer is none other than Richard Rich himself in a set-piece of infamous villainy. I’m sure Rich wasn’t a saint, but wow...that was over the top.

And of course after their meeting and the forced bargain, Shardlake goes to fetch Emma/Hugh off the Mary Rose, a warship preparing for the French invasion at Portsmouth. Like every other time Shardlake gets into trouble, he underestimates who he’s going up against and just walks right into it. Barak did not accompany him, at Shardlake’s own insistence, so he’s on his own and has to be rescued. Fate puts he and Emma/Hugh together again and they both make it to shore unlike the hundreds of soldiers and sailors who didn’t. Emma disappears, but not before they can talk about the change of wardship and how he’ll basically give her the freedom to choose her life on her own.

Now finally he and Barak can get back to London; Barak to Tamesin and the birth, Shardlake to his house and his vulgar brute of a steward. I like the new stray he takes on with this outsing and that Guy is back to his old self after the knee-jerk little asshole punks destroyed his office. Later still there’s a wonderful scene between him, Queen Katherine and Richard Rich. Delicious.

As usual the details are excellent and not too overwhelming, although I wonder at the level and quality use of the F word in this one. Like someone saying he knew fuck all about something. Did they say that in 1550? Or a goose walking over someone’s grave; is the saying that old? I hope so, but it did make me wonder.

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After a slow start, this entry in the Matthew Shardlake series picks up steam and comes to a satisfying conclusion. This time, the crookback lawyer is involved in the Court of Wards, a notoriously corrupt scheme for farming out rich orphans to benefit the royal treasury. He takes the case at the

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request of Queen Catherine Parr, who wants him to investigate the circumstances of a ward of the court who might be suffering abuse from is guardian.

This case also lets Shardlake investigate how his mad friend Ellen came to be in Bedlam. As these two cases proceed, Matthew uncovers a tie between them. This brings him back to the unfavorable attention of Sir Richard Rich, member of the Privy Council and corrupt lawyer. Matters reach a head in both investigations just as the French invasion fleet appears off Portsmouth.

In spite of the thundering conclusion, I think the novel is a bit too long (626 pages!). Either case could make a compelling novel by itself, but together they stretch out the material too far. Fans of this series will like the book, but new readers are advised to start with Dissolution, the first book in the series.

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Intervening on behalf of one of her female servants, queen Catherine Parr requests that Shardlake take on the case of Hugh Curteys, a young man whom the servant's son, Michael Calfhill, had believed to have been terribly wronged, Calfhill having since committed suicide. No concrete evidence of any

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wrongdoing exists, and Shardlake has to answer his case in the notoriously corrupt Court of Wards, where his opponent is evidently hostile towards him from the beginning. Acceding to the queen's influence, the judge grudgingly grants Shardlake the right to take depositions from all the parties concerned at their place of residence in Hampshire.

Once again - after Sovereign - Sansom decides to move the location of the plot outside London, giving him, and us, the opportunity to visit the Hampshire and Sussex countryside and the assembled navy in Portsmouth, where an attack from the French appears to be imminent. As always, he seems to capture the mood perfectly, the battle weariness among the veterans, the barely suppressed excitement and optimism among the new recruits, the jitteriness amongst the general population. This is where Heartstone comes into its own, the depiction of everyday life, imbuing even the minor characters with a voice of their own. I felt genuine grief when I learnt of the death of one member of Shardlake's household, mentioned in passing, and could feel the horror faced by George Leacon at the siege of Boulogne; the passages of the sinking of the Mary Rose are quite harrowing and will haunt you for days. Yet I was less convinced of the mystery central to this story, and could never really identify with Hugh Curteys, who is always portrayed as devoid of emotion, whereas the other members of the Hobbey household, though coming across as unsympathetic, are at least ruled by their emotions; this is the reason why I have only awarded it four stars. While parts of Heartstone are as sublime as previous volumes in the series, I still had the nagging feeling that it didn't hang together just as well, it starts off far too slowly and drags on for too long, with nothing worthwhile happening for several chapters. While Sansom has taken the admirable step of not always making Shardlake likeable, I have to confess that in Heartstone I found him to be particularly irritating, stubbornly pursuing his ideas to the detriment of everyone around him, not considering that his actions will have consequences; Barak aptly phrases it thus: 'That's the problem, ..., you set something in motion and before you know where you are it's all out of control.'

To me, Sansom's stories have always been more than 'just' a historical mystery, they let us explore what it means to be human and allow us to gain a deeper understanding of history. As Dr Jerome de Groot writes in the 'Opinion' column in October's issue of the BBC History magazine, 'Historical fiction can give readers a more profound insight into the past, and illuminate an issue in a way that non-fiction prose can never hope to achieve.' So take that on the chin, all you nitpickers and sticklers for one hundred per cent historical accuracy! I am just grateful for the time I was allowed to spend in Shardlake and Barak's company, not to mention all the other friendly or sinister characters I've encountered along the way. Thank you for the ride, Mr Sansom, and for allowing us to partake in the journey, it's been a pleasure.

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Matthew Shardlake returns with more investigations. This time he is determined to learn the truth about a young woman in Bedlam who doesn't seem to be insane and is being supported by a mysterious benefactor. He is also asked by the Queen to investigate the position of an orphan whose wardship was

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purchased by a family with questions hanging over them. The ward, Hugh, had been tutored by the son of one of the Queen's handmaids. When the tutor returned to visit Hugh he discovered something heinous but committed suicide before he could pass the information on to anyone.

Matthew's helper, Barack, has to leave his very pregnant wife to assist Matthew and Matthew's doctor friend, Guy, watches his household. They proceed to stay at the ward's home not far from Portsmouth where King Henry is amassing troops and ships to ward off an invasion of the French.

This book gives us a satisfying pair of mysteries along with another historical lesson in how orphans of landed families could be bought and their lands "managed" until they became of age. Needless to say, not all transactions were on the up and up.

Another foray into the fascinating world of 1545 England with the dedicated and almost obsessive investigation to find the truth and a fair outcome for his clients.

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Hunch backed Tudor lawyer, Matthew Shardlake is off to Hampshire in this novel, the fifth in the series. He is investigating two separate cases but as the story progresses they begin to overlap more and more.
This is the longest of novel in the series so far, over 700 pages. The second half is

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certainly better than the first half, which, for me, felt like it was dragging somewhat. The story's climax in Portsmouth, aboard the Mary Rose, is classic Shardlake though, and it is just a bit of a shame it took us so long to get there.

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Another excellent adventure for Matthew Shardlake, weaving in the attempted invasion of the French at Portsmouth in 1545 and the sinking of the Mary Rose. I heard Deborah Moggach on Radio 4's Book Club on Sunday bravely saying that when she had written Tulip Fever she was asked to write a short

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story in the same period, but everything she knew about the place and time was in Tulip Fever and she had nothing more to write. That can't be the same with C.J. Sansom - he seems to be totally immersed in the period, writing, as it were, like a native.

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Another matthew Shardlake thriller, and as ever a brilliant read - a great plot with well-researched detail.

Vivid portrayal of Tudor England including a stag hunt, bedlam and aboard the Mary Rose with Shardlake as a sympathetic companion.

Fantasic. Another C. J. Sansom achievement.

Historical fiction is my guilty pleasure - this one does not disappoint.