Sovereign
Macmillan(November 2006)
www.panmacmillan.co.uk
It’s 1541, and a year has passed since the beheading of Thomas Cromwell. Matthew Shardlake had been pulled unwillingly by Cromwell into two mortally dangerous plots (DISSOLUTION and DARK FIRE), but any hopes he now has that those days are behind him are dashed when he is summoned to meet Archbishop Cranmer, now King Henry VIII’s right hand man.
Cranmer wants Shardlake to take care of a few routine matters in York, towards which place the King is approaching with five thousand horses, one thousand wagons, one thousand soldiers, and all their retinue – the largest Royal progress of Tudor times – to terrify the recently-rebellious northerners. Shardlake and his companion Barak have barely arrived at York before they are caught up in a bloody and brutal murder…
SOVEREIGN is the stunning third book in C.J. Sansom's Shardlake series and was shortlisted for the 2006 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.
"Don't open this book if you have anything urgent pending. Its grip is so compulsive that, until you reach its final page, you'll have to be almost physically prised away from it.... Exceptionally gifted at re-creating the look, sound and smell of the period, Sansom also excells at recreating its moral and intellectual climate. Collisons of ideology and collusions of religion and politics fascinate him. WINTER IN MADRID, his fictional foray into civil war Spain, further testified to this. But it's in his Tudor novels -- of which SOVEREIGN is so intensely imagined an example -- that his remarkable talents really blaze out." -- Peter Kemp, Sunday Times
"[SOVEREIGN] is deeper, stronger and subtler than most novels in this genre (including Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE). The series is becoming an annual treat which admirers of David Starkey's Tudor biographies will value: they would, incidentally, teach most secondary school history students more than a plethora of National Curriculum textbooks. The vigorous, well-drawn characters and their flawed moral intelligence are especially enjoyable, and a reminder of much that is lacking in current literary fiction... As political greed continues to torment the innocent under the guise of religion, this gripping and engaging series seems ominously prescient about the present, as well as genuinely enlightening about the past." -- Amanda Craig, Independent on Sunday
"Sansom is excellent on contemporary horrors. This is no herbs-and-frocks version of Tudor England, but a remorseless portrait of a violent, partly lawless country....The terrifying business of encountering the king is brilliantly done: the mounting tension, the abasement. Sansom's incorporation of details of the royal progress is a model of how historical fiction can meld recorded fact with the imagined perspective of the contemporary individual, recreating the moment.... You can lose yourself in this world. " -- The Independent
"When historical fiction clicks, there's nothing more gripping. Almost 600 pages long, C.J. Sansom's fantastic SOVEREIGN left me positively baying for more. It's that good... Rebellion, plots, torture, fanaticism, a murder mystery and real historical scandal come alive in this deeply satisfying novel" -- USA Today
"This is a compelling read, vividly capturing the atmosphere of constant fear, as religious fervour and political ambition are expressed in cruelty and corruption" -- Sunday Telegraph
"Sansom's hero wins our respect and attention because, in an age where to pursue justice was to be half in love with painful death, he retains integrity, obstinacy and curiosity. This is an atmospheric thriller where velvet and silk hide putrescence, and beyond the grandeur of a Court lies a world where people rot alive or choke in deep mud. Sansom does a nice line in irony and savage humour, as well as the simple affections which keep people going in nightmarish times." -- Time Out
"A wonderful story, a taut plot, and enticing period description. I promise you that once you’ve found Sansom, you won’t want to let him go" -- James Naughtie
"Heart-pounding suspense and stomach-tightening tension... a superb approximation of the crucible of fear, treachery and mistrust that was Tudor England, and a memorably blood-swollen portrait of the ogreish Henry's inhumane kingship." -- Trevor Lewis, Sunday Times pick of the week
Foreign rights have been sold in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Norway, Russia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland and the USA.
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