Sovereign - (Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery) by C J Sansom (Paperback)

About the Book

This third Shardlake novel is set in the autumn of 1541, during the reign of Henry VIII. This time Matthew Shardlake is faced with the most terrifying fate of the age: imprisonment in the Tower of London.

Book Synopsis

The third novel in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series--the inspiration for the Hulu original series Shardlake!

C. J . Sansom has garnered a wider audience and increased critical praise with each new novel published. His first book in the Matthew Shardlake series, Dissolution, was selected by P. D. James in The Wall Street Journal as one of her top five all-time favorite books. Now in Sovereign, Shardlake faces the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: imprisonment in the Tower of London.

Shardlake and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, find themselves embroiled in royal intrigue when a plot against King Henry VIII is uncovered in York and a dangerous conspirator they've been charged with transporting to London is connected to the death of a local glazer.

Awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger - the highest honor in British crime writing

Review Quotes

"When historical fiction clicks, there's nothing more gripping . . . and C.J. Sansom's fantastic Sovereign left me positively baying for more. It's that good. . . . Rebellion, plots, torture, fanaticism, a murder mystery and a real historical scandal come alive in this deeply satisfying novel."
-Deirdre Donahue, USA Today

"Authors of the caliber of P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Ian Rankin, and Minette Walters remain rare. C. J. Sansom's Sovereign . . . deserves as wide a readership as any of the above. . . . It's deeper, stronger, and subtler than most novels in the genre."
-The Sunday Independent (London)

About the Author

C. J. Sansom, the internationally bestselling author of the novels Winter in Madrid and Dominion and the Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series, earned a Ph.D. in history and was a lawyer before becoming a full-time writer.