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Average Customer Rating:

Monks and mayhem on the south coast....

Customer Rating:

Plenty of people have compared this book to Eco's Name of the Rose, which is a little unfair (rather in the way every single fantasy book is somehow related back to JRRTolkien)as that sets some pretty big boots to fill! The parallells are sometimes very strong- no spoilers- but this is a very different book, and for me lacks the intensity, originality and dazzling plot of the former. But enough about Eco! This is a well written and capable story, the characters are simply sketched and develop with the plot. Everything is carefully set up and Sansom is someone who knows his stuff. It reads just like what its meant to be: a report by a careful and officious clerk, though I think it looses dramatic potential for it at times. The ending is rather too neat and predictable, and I find the lead characters agnosticism and postmodernism rather garishly anachronistic. It ticks all the boxes, but won't upset any apple-carts. Perfect for a winters reading by ther fire.....

Name of the Rose it ain't

Customer Rating:

Sorry, it's a murder mystery set in a monastery of grotesque monks with an ever increasing body count, a historical setting and a standard flawed detective and his questioning young side kick. But it isn't the Name of the Rose. The anachronism of the genre to the period which Eco explores so well is not appreciated here. The author has no real understanding of the Tudor period, as opposed to knowledge of the facts. Servants are not just incumberances to be shooed away when the principal characters need privacy. No Abbot or Justice would pour out drinks for their own guests, no Commissioner would pull a door bell himself. But of course ubiqitous servants don't allow a 20th Century-style detective to solve a sealed room mystery. The author does not know what he needs to look up. The Penitent Thief is not Barabbas, Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologia would not fit into a desk drawer, if indeed desks with locked drawers were a common feature of Tudor studies. And an 'amusing' reference to the Name of the Rose only serves to emphasise how inferior this. Sorry, just another Inspector Morse in tights,

Excellent and revealing historical whodunit

Customer Rating:

I discovered the 'Shardlake' series by accident and actually read the last one first .. so back I went to the beginning to see what had lead up to the end. Not that I needed to; the books are self-contained, but I was fascinated enough to want to do that. And that's the key to this series, I think. It is fascinating. If we are not careful, history lessons teach us that Henry VIII abolished Catholicism, razed the monasteries for their wealth and the whole country shouted 'allelujah' and converted on the spot to the new religion. As CJ Sansom shows us, it wasn't like that at all. And that was part of the fascination for me. What actually did happen when Henry broke from the Catholic church? How did it affect every day life and every day people in England? The power and politics behind that momentous decision plus the knock-on effects are clearly shown in this series. Shardlake is sent to investigate a murder in a monastery. The world of the Tudor monastery, fighting to maintain itself against (substantiated) accusations of all manner of wrong-doing, is blown apart by the murder and the subsequent investigations. The detective story is equally as fascinating as the history, which is inserted seamlessly into the narrative. Historical fiction writing of a very high degree indeed. I recommend it to all fans of historical fiction/detective fiction.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR!

Customer Rating:

I have tried in the past to read historical novels but found them to be, at best difficult to follow, and at worst plain dull. C J Sansom is a breath of fresh air. Dissolution engaged my attention from the first page and I was gripped until I had reached the end of the book. His use of the English language makes the novel a joy to read. His vivid description of the Tudor era allows one to live and breathe that turbulent period. And the story, with its clever twists and turns, kept me hooked right to the very end. In future I will put aside my prejudices against certain genres of fiction because I may deny myself such wonderful creations by writers like C J Sansom. I am looking forward to reading other works by this gifted author over the coming months. Highly recommended.

An updated Name of the Rose type murder mystery!

Customer Rating:

Dissolution is a fine historical novel. Sansom has certainly done his homework. You really feel like you are living the Reformation period. It reminded me of Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose" - but is a lot more readable! It's set within a monastery where murders are taking place and it has the prospect of being closed hanging over it. There is a teeny-tiny bit of love(lust?) interest in it also. A thoroughly enjoyable walk through history!