I've read all the Matthew Shardlake books now: all in the wrong order, but it doesn't matter. I feel as if I know my way round Tudor London, and have a bit of a feel for the sounds and smells of the streets, and the religious and political turmoil that was a part of everyday life then.
This is a complex two-pronged tale, beginning with a young girl falsely accused of murder, and soon involving Shardlake in another apparently unrelated all-but impossible mission to uncover the secret behind the mysterious Greek Fire, at the behest of Thomas Cromwell.
This is the book where we meet Barak, the coarse yet astute and intelligent young man whom Cromwell provides as his assistant: herbalist Guy, an ex-monk whom we met in the first book has more than a bit-part to play, and is in many ways the voice of Shardlake's conscience. Fast paced, intelligently and intricately plotted, this is a novel that is impossible to put down.
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