Customer Reviews

Revelation. C.J. Sansom (Matthew Shardlake Mysteries)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Matthew Shardlake, C.J. Sansom's clever protagonist, faces off against a serial killer in 1543 London, in his newest adventure, 'Revelation.' Sansom's Shardlake series, known for its historical accuracy and interesting characters, is carefully plotted and entertaining. Shardlake, the hunchback lawyer, is involved with the embattled Protestant faction he much mistrusts in the pursuit of a serial killer who is knocking off victims in a gruesome manner prescribed by the Biblical book of Revelations.
The characters from the earlier books are all present - Jack Barak and his wife Tamasin, Guy the former monk Moorish physician - but they are far more than stock figures - their lives are complicated, and they develop and change with each book. Jack and Tamasin are having problems in their marriage, and Guy has taken in an apparently likeable apprentice whom Matthew distrusts. Matthew himself is thinking of the possibility of love and marriage.
Sixteenth century London comes alive under Sansom's pen, and Matthew remains one of fiction's more compelling, unique, and sympathetic heroes.

On a personal level, I found the serial killings to be gruesome enough to make me uncomfortable and I found myself skipping over some passages. I deducted one star for this, although it probably won't bother most readers.

For readers who haven't read any of the series, think about starting at the beginning. It's a great series. The characters develop and their relationships change. It's 'Dissolution,' 'Dark Fire,' 'Sovereign,' and 'Revelation.'

Of the four books in the series this one is best left to be read last. Each of the first three are meant to be very different style mysteries. This book is a mixture of the second and third books style with alot of social commentary added in. Don't get me wrong I read the book in four days and enjoyed every page but for me I knew the characters and setting so well that it moved along quite quickly. The weakness of this book is that the author chose to add several story lines that would highlight a more modern way of thinking than possible for people of this period. From psychology to relationships these lines detract from the action and at points your meant to believe they were ahead of Freud in their thinking. Even the medicince seemed alittle to enlightened. I guess you can debate these points but they do provide some unsettling moments in the book which I found detracting. I gave it 5 stars. Would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the other three. Would not recommend it to anyone just starting the series.

C. J. Sansom's "Revelation" takes place in 1543, a tumultuous year in English history. Religious fanaticism is on the rise among Protestants and Catholics alike; Henry VIII, who is ailing, has been urging Lady Catherine Parr to become his sixth wife, but she is reluctant to accept his proposal; the chasm between rich and poor is huge, with filthy, starving, and often mentally ill beggars crowding the thoroughfares. The homeless are everywhere, and "most people simply looked away, made the sufferers invisible." The sick often die in the streets, since there is no hospital care for the destitute.

In this, the fourth installment in Sansom's splendid series, the narrator, forty-year old lawyer Matthew Shardlake, seems to have finally found peace of mind. Although he has a humpback that still attracts stares and the occasional taunt, Matthew has secured a good position as one of two barristers appointed to plead before the Court of Requests. He enjoys his work and makes enough money to pay a housekeeper, eat well, and dress in fine robes. Although he has no wife, he does have many loyal friends whom he values. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing, and Matthew's equanimity is about to be shattered.

One of Shardlake's closest friends is found brutally slaughtered in a public place. Since the victim had no enemies, the killing appears to be a random act of violence. Soon, however, the authorities discover that there have been other similar crimes. Matthew joins forces with Archbishop Cranmer and his inner circle to identify and apprehend a serial killer who uses the book of Revelation as a blueprint for torturing and murdering his victims. Adding to Matthew's worries, he has a new and troubling client, Adam Kite, a seventeen-year-old who prays obsessively, rails loudly "with strange moans and shrieks" in public, and has been placed in Bedlam, the infamous asylum, on the Privy Council's orders. Shardlake is also concerned about his loyal assistant, Jack Barak. Jack married the lovely Tamasin and all seemed well until they lost their baby at birth. Since then, the couple has been quarreling incessantly, and Barak spends more time at the pubs than he does with his lonely and depressed wife.

Sansom has immersed himself in the geography, sociology, culture, politics, and theology of London in the sixteenth century and his writing is the richer for it. "Revelation" is more than five hundred pages long, and the story unfolds gradually; but the patient reader will be compensated for his perseverance. Matthew Shardlake is a marvelous and original creation. Although he is not handsome or physically powerful, he has keen intelligence, insight, compassion, loyalty, and great inner strength. He repeatedly puts himself at risk to track a madman who is as clever as he is sadistic. Another appealing character is Matthew's close friend, Dr. Guy Malton, an excellent physician who uses his knowledge of medicines, herbs, and human anatomy to alleviate his patients' suffering. Matthew would be lost without Guy's able assistance. The secondary characters are, as usual, beautifully portrayed, including Ellen, an agoraphobic who, while confined to Bedlam, takes care of her fellow inmates; Dorothy Elliard, a sweet-natured and attractive woman whom Matthew has loved for years; Archbishop Cranmer, a commanding figure who must weigh his actions carefully, lest he incur the King's displeasure; and Piers, Guy's apprentice and protégé, a bright and calculating boy whom Matthew distrusts.

"Revelation" is a well-researched and complex novel that brings an unsettled era in London to brilliant life; it is a suspenseful and exciting murder mystery with an explosive ending; and it is an unflinching look at the evils of racial, religious, and class prejudice. The plot may be too busy for those who like their books lean, but the author balances his many subplots and large cast with Dickensian flair. With its lively dialogue, evocative setting, detailed descriptive passages, and engrossing themes, "Revelation" is a rich and rewarding work of historical fiction that shows why C. J. Sansom has garnered such a devoted following.

Revelation by C.J. Sansom is the latest and the fourth in his series of Matthew Shardlake mysteries, set in Tudor England. These historical mysteries are great; they are based on historically accurate incidents from which Sansom has drawn fabricated but truly compelling stories of political and religious intrigue (the two were even more tightly entwined than today), and, always, murder.

Sansom's hero (and mine), the humpbacked lawyer Shardlake, is drawn into the intrigues, usually against his will, because of his intelligence and because of his neutrality in the never-ending political struggles. He is rightfully frightened of becoming involved in those battles, where to end up on the weaker side means to end up dead -- or imprisoned. But using his wits and his few trusted friends, including a Black ex-Monk and doctor and his right-hand man of Jewish ancestry, Shardlake stays alive and solves a few mysteries as well.

In Revelation, a serial killer is on the loose, a murderous maniac obsessed with the explicit and violent prophecies from the Book of Revelation. I had never know that the Book of Revelation was contested as being a true gospel (word of God) by prominent Christians including John Calvin and Martin Luther. My own research found that Thomas Jefferson called Revelation "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

I always learn so much reading Sansom's books. His books are full of many tasty (as well as some very unsavory) tidbits of English history and as a rigorous researcher, his facts line up with the history books and his stories don't stray far from the believable. His first novel, Dissolution, was set at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, orchestrated and led by Cromwell. Dark Fire revolves around a plot involving alchemists, a secret chemical weapon, and the slipping fate of Cromwell, as Henry VIII looks to protect himself and get rid of yet another wife. Sovereign was incredibly gripping, with its plot line of hidden papers revealing the true genealogy of Henry VIII (the blood was not blue) and set amidst the Henry VIII's grand march to York. Cromwell is long gone, executed like so many others, and Henry VIII is marching to York with his present queen, Catherine Howard, in an effort to quell the rebellious stirrings in the North of England. The facts that Sansom weaves in are fascinating: the King traveled with an entourage of thousands, including horses, soldiers, noblemen, servants, livery, clergy, carpenters, entertainers, and privy diggers. In Revelation, Henry VIII is now wooing his final wife, Catherine Parr: she is a religious reformist (against the rituals of Rome) and reformers hope she will draw Henry back from the traditional tendencies he is drifting towards, after scorning them so soundly under Cromwell.

Sansom's books are dense with detail and plot, rich with characters and landscape. Shardlake ends up prevailing in the end (we are satisfied) but his victory of uncovering truth is marred, always, by the reality of how the truth must be concealed and by the bodies left on the floor: although Shardlake is able to untangle the mysteries presented to him and save some of those endangered by the political and religious swords swinging wildly from reformist to traditional, he can never save everyone. And so the poor hunchback is saddled as literally as he is figuratively with the heavy double yoke of guilt for those he could not save and inadequacy for those he could not help. In other words, he is a very human character; we sympathize with him, feel his pain and his sorrow, and we breathe of sigh of relief whenever he manages to save himself, one more time, from imminent torture or death.

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Mr. Sansom has accomplished the impossible feat of creating a lawyer I can admire. This, the fourth mystery novel featuring lawyer Matthew Shardlake, is to me the best yet. After his last painful adventure with Henry the 8th, Shardlake is now what we would call today a public defender and is going about his daily business when a good friend is murdered. This crime draws Shardlake reluctently back into the political world, a cauldron of ambition and treachery where today's ally is tomorrow's enemy. He must find a balance between competing relgious doctrines while concealing his own growing disbelief. In his quest for a Bibically inspired serial killer he learns of new theories of madness and medical science and the dangers of fanaticism of all stripes. There is even a hint of romance for the longtime bachelor, who at times is playing at being a marriage counselor. Subplots pop up frequently and the reader is often sure of the culprit until Sansom reveals the killer to us. I look forward to the next outing with Shardlake.

This is the fourth in the Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom. I really enjoyed the first three and I liked this one as well but for some reason Revelation didn't dazzle me like the other Shardlake mysteries did.

I enjoyed the historical details, I enjoyed returning to these familiar characters and I thought the murder mystery was interesting and for the most part well done. But for some reason I wasn't as wowed by this book as the others. I wish I could articulate why but I'm just not sure...

I liked it but I didn't love it, it was good and certainly worth reading. I think CJ Sansom is a great writer and he's my favorite kind of historical writer, he's a teacher as well. He lays out the history and the religious and political conflict of the times so that the reader has some understanding of the context of the events.

This mystery didn't seem as perfect as the others, there was one particular thing that happened when Matthew and his assistant Barak were about to apprehend the killer that I didn't find believable, and I guess I was disappointed by that.

In the spring of 1543, King Henry VIII is wooing Catherine Parr. The embattled Protestant faction at court is watching developments very carefully: Catherine Parr is known to have reformist sympathies and this is important at a time when the struggle for power between religious reformers and reactionaries has entered a new phase.

Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and occasional detective has sworn not to involve himself in any more affairs of state after his last brush with the factions of King Henry's court. He has been assigned the case of a teenage boy, with a religious mania, who has been locked in the Bedlam hospital for the insane. This case seems to have its own challenges, but Shardlake's life becomes far more complicated when his old friend Roger Elliard, a fellow lawyer, is found with his throat cut in the Lincoln's Inn fountain. Ellliard's murder is one of a number and it quickly becomes clear that the killer is basing his murders on the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, whose apocalyptic visions have recently been opened to the common people through the king's reforms.

This is a great mystery in a richly drawn historical setting. There are a number of different subplots and in weaving them together; Sansom creates a vivid picture of life in the closing years of Henry VIII's England. This novel is the fourth in a series to feature Matthew Shardlake and it is well worth reading them in order to better understand Matthew Shardlake himself as well as the times in which he lived.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

"I'm not fitted for a public life, for the harsh decisions people feel they must make."

So Matthew Shardlake, a London lawyer, tells Lord Hertford, the brother-in-law of Henry VIII, but that doesn't save him from being caught up in issues of public importance as an investigator. Now, in 1543, Hertford and Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, summon him to solve a new mystery for them. Since the death of Hertford's sister -- Jane Seymour -- the king's marital misadventures have made him the laughing stock of Europe, and now he has his eye on a sixth wife, Catherine Parr. (And during each marriage, thanks to a combination of his patrons' political machinations and the cases he is involved with, Shardlake has found himself reluctantly drawn into the orbit of the court and its power-hungry lords and hangers-on. He doesn't really want patrons, but they seem to need his services...) Shardlake is already busy, and has promised the widow of a friend -- another lawyer -- to solve the latter's brutal murder. Now, however, it seems that his friend is the victim of a brutal serial killer, whose first victim was tied to Catherine Parr. Protestant leaders like Hertford view the marriage as their only hope to stop the country from veering back towards Catholicism and need Shardlake to prevent any taint of misdoing -- or heresy -- from being attached to Catherine.

Heresy and religious mania of all kinds is at the heart of this excellent historical novel, the fourth in a series featuring the hunchbacked Shardlake, a reluctant player in the Tudor court's power politics. Himself living a life on the margins, he is more at ease trying to solve the problems of those who, like him, must struggle to find their place in the world -- such as the young boy confined to Bedlam, an institution for the insane, for preaching what the authorities deem to be heresy. If Shardlake can win his release, he'll be swept up in the bishop of London's crusading zeal and likely burned at the stake. Then Shardlake discovers a link between this case and the murders -- and that the murder seems to choosing his methods from the book of Revelation -- and despite his awareness of political and personal risks, knows that he must do whatever he can to solve it, much to his own dismay. "I realized I was involved again in something that could get me in bad odour with the King. Something dangerous. A second time, I might not survive."

As with Sansom's three previous mysteries featuring Shardlake the reluctant investigator, this is as much novel as it is mystery. The author crafts the world of Tudor London, from it slums to the law courts and the king's court, that is impeccable in detail. Even the minor characters are vividly portrayed. Shardlake himself emerges as that rarest of fictional players, an intelligent, honorable and scarred man who has learned how hard it is to trust those around him. This time, old friendships -- with the Moorish physician Guy, and his servant and assistant, Jack Barak, will be strained, even as he discovers a new attachment, with the most unlikely of women...

If you haven't read the other books in this series, I urge you to start at the beginning with Dissolution. If you have, then rush out to get this one.

First Sentence: The high chandeliers in the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn were ablaze with candles, for it was late afternoon when the play began.

Henry VIII has asked to marry Catherine Parr and England is in a time of religious turmoil.

The Dissolution of the monasteries is done but now Henry, and the reformists, are moving back toward Catholic ways, under the King rather than the Pope, at the same time as the rise in Protestantism. An English version of the Bible has been published, but only Churches and the upper class are allowed to read it.

One of lawyer Matthew Shardlake's closest friends has been murdered and his body publicly displayed. Brought before Archbishop Cramer, Matthew learns this is not the first such killing. A serial killer is using versus in the Book of Revelations to carry out his killings.

Sansom brings Tutor England to life and makes us see what a difficult time it was in which to live. He doesn't present the romanticized image, but gives us a look at the dangers of the time from social and religious reforms to poverty to mental illness being labeled possession, without ever slowing down the story or being preachy.

The dialogue is, naturally enough, not of the time, but flavored with a sense of the time. I always learn a lot reading Sansom.

Shardlake is a wonderful character who has grown and improved as a character through the series. He is supported by Barak, for whom Matthew tries to do a bit of marriage counseling, and Guy, a Moor, once a monk, now a doctor.

Sansom is an evocative writer and masterful at combining historical detail with a multilayered story, and suspenseful mystery. I am continually impressed by the quality of Sansom's writing.

I have read the other reviews on this book and agree with most of them, but here is my personal take on it.

It is a great and gripping mystery book. While others have pointed out that it has some gramatical historical discrepancies, like the use of the word "sadist" at a time prior to Marquis de Sade being born, the use of the word "snob" with today's meaning when that was not what it implied at that time, etc., as far as simply being a suspense storyline, it is a great book. I love this type of book, growing up reading Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and such, and find that newer books tend to disappoint me or lose my interest. That was not the case with this book! Although it is over 600 pages long, once I got warmed up through the first 50 or 100 pages (it always takes me some time to warm up and really start reading a book), I was reading it all the time like an addict.

Someone else commented here that the book has too many characters thrown in too fast for keeping track of them. Well, maybe because I am terrible at names and always have that problem, which makes me used to having to go back and forth in order to refer to who is who in books, the problem did not affect me as much. Yes, I had a bit of a hard time keeping track of who the writer was talking about from time to time, but I always have to deal with the issue, and did not feel like it was worse than most books I read. Also, since this is the last book of the series and the first one I read, I wonder if that made it harder for me to keep up with the characters, since someone who's been following the series might already be used to some, or most, of them. And this brings me to the next item in my review...

I read in other reviews that this series is better read in the order in which it was published. I wouldn't know whether or not that is the best way to read the series, since this is the only book I have read so far. But, from my experience, this is not a book you will be totally lost if you read it without reading the prior books in the series. I was able to follow the story and get a good understanding of the characters and the settings in which the story took place without problems. And the book held my interest enough that I already placed an order for the other three books, which I am anxiously waiting for! I finished the book yesterday and the order is not scheduled to arrive until Monday (3 days from today...). This is definitely one of those books that you feel empty and lonely once you finish it because it is long and gripping enough to become a bit of a habit in your life. Going out without it to read whenever I have to sit waiting for something just does not feel right! :)

Regarding the pricing, I cannot feel bad for anyone in the US complaining that it is an expensive book. I traveled to England a month ago and ended up reading the book I had much faster than I expected, so two days before my trip back home, I realized I should get a new book (and sort of regretted not bringing an extra one, since I had books at home I hadn't read yet). I headed to Foyles in London (great store, by the way!) and was glad I was running out of reading material for the return flight because just going to the book store was quite an experience. Once there, I decided I should get something very English so I returned home bringing a piece of England with me. I'm a terrible tourist, so a book would be more meaningful to me than pictures, postcards, trinkets, and all the other stuff good tourists like to bring home from trips. Because I grew up reading and watching English mystery materials (Alfred Hitchcock is my all time favorite director), I went straight to the mystery section of the bookstore. C.J. Samson's books caught my eyes right away. I have to say I was a little intimidated by the bulk of it, most books I read range between 400 and 500 pages, and this one felt like a little dictionary in my hands. And for the last 10 years or so, I had fallen out of the habit of reading fiction, reading mostly psychology and textbooks, so such a long fiction book concerned me because I was afraid it might not hold my interest and attention all the way through. But it seemed very interesting and just what I was looking for. So I bought it. Believe me, if you think the book was expensive here in the US, try buying it in pounds in the UK. Especially when you know if you wait to buy it in a couple of days at home it will probably cost half of what you are paying...

My last comment is that I also read in other reviews that at times the dialog and psychology of the characters feel more like a modern mentality than what would be expected from people living in that era. I have to agree that this is true. At times, the mixture of that with comments typical of "god fearing" folks from that era could be somewhat annoying and feel silly.

All things considered, I loved the book. Since I am not enough of a history or literature buff for the discrepancies mentioned above to bother me so much, as far as finding a gripping thriller with an intelligent story line, this is as good as it gets in my opinion. I can't wait to get started reading the earlier books, which will happen as soon as I see that little Amazon box arriving!

I hope you like this book as much as I did.

Enjoy! :)