Lamentation

Lamentation by C.J. Sansom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a sucker for period-fiction detectives, and C. J. Sansom’s lawyer Matthew Shardlake easily ranks along with Steven Saylor’s Gordianus the Finder, Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther, Lyndsey Davis’s Falco, Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce, Colin Cotterill’s Dr Siri Paibourn.

In this latest instalment in the series, the morbidly obese tyrant, Henry VIII, is dying, and his queen, Catherine Parr, needs Shardlake’s help once again. At a point in time when holding particular religious views could lead to being burnt at the stake, she has written—and lost—a manuscript proclaiming her own heartfelt beliefs. Shardlake must find it before whoever has stolen it manages to have it printed for public consumption, which would not go down too well with the king. However, it appears that this is not the only manuscript to go missing, nor is Shardlake’s the only faction on its trail.

Fans of this series will lap this up. I did. Newcomers may find it overly long (which it is, even to a Shardlake enthusiast like me), may tire at the repetitious discourse on religion, and will search in vain for an earth-shattering plot twist. Towards the end, there is a plot twist of sorts, though I wouldn’t call it earth-shattering.

But the scholarly recreation of Tudor England is once again flawless, and in this volume Sansom puts the newly flourishing publishing business under the microscope. With characters bemoaning the replacement of fine illuminated manuscripts with the ugly, blocky type used in modern books, I personally found this fascinating. I never realized that the history of publishing could be so fraught with danger!

As I don’t wish to include any spoilers, let me just say how much I loved the way that Sansom set up Shardlake with a new patron at the very end, ensuring the continuation of this series for many years to come. Methinks.


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