I'm a huge fan of the Tudor detective novels (if that's the right term) involving the hunch-backed lawyer Matthew Shardlake, and its large cast of characters, imagined and real - Cranmer and Henry VIII for starters.
Apart from the cast, the plot is complex, terrifying and thoroughly enthralling, involving multiple murders and a study of passages in the Book of Revelations. Tudor London is conjured up so that I can smell the streets and see the urban scenes that Sansom brings to life. I sense the religious turmoil, the unease and fear in this period of upheaval and change. I enjoy the company of Shardlake, of his assistant Jack Barak; of the doctor and former monk Guy who is Shardlake's friend; of Barak's wife Tamasin; of the widowed Dorothy, whose husband's death begins this bloody, complex and horrifying murder hunt; and so many others.
Sansom wears his considerable learning lightly and uses it to great effect in weaving his complex and fast-moving tale. Above everything though, this book's a great page-turner. It was hard to put it down until I'd read every single one of its almost 550 pages
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