This book had me gripped from the first page. I couldn't put it down. You just don't want it to end. Grab a glass of wine, light the candles and go back to the darker side of Tudor England. Brilliant!

I thought that the common wisdom was that Henery VIII had done England a big favour by dissolution from Rome, the destruction of the monasteries and the establishment of the Church Of England.... but as always there are two sides to any argument. Over a period of 400 years the Catholic Church had got rich, lazy corrupt and complacent. at a time when the monarchy which, by coincidence, was also corrupt lazy incompetent and complacent (but not so rich), were looking for a wealthy scapegoat to allow them to fill their diminishing coffers. All they needed was a damn good excuse. The result was the inevitable struggle for power which left only the common people as victims. The story pits one regime against the other and enlightens the reader on the fervently held beliefs of both parties through a tale of murder and intrigue. A great medievil whodunit which keeps the suspense alive to the last page.

Outstanding!

Mr Sansom has a wonderful feel for the era and doesn't shirk from showing his readers the darker and less salubrious side of Tudor life and its complicated politics. In an age where one wrong word could condemn a man and one's thoughts are under scrutiny by all, his main character has to stay on the side of good as well as be diplomatic and succeed in the task set him to everyone's satisfaction, or not only is his career at risk, so is his life. As historical crime novels go, this was an intriguing one and my attention caught to the end. Nor was my enjoyment spoilt by my guessing too son who the culprit was, and their motivation came as a very clever surprise. Being a fan of the Tudor era and historical crime series, Michael Jenks and Cadfael among others, I picked this book up with some delicious anticipation and I wasn’t disappointed.

I absolutely loved this book! I never used to be a big fan of historical fiction until reading this. Unstoppable page turner with characters which are both interesting and likeable. Only wish there was more than four books in the series.......