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 enlarge | Author: C.j. Sansom
Publisher: Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: £17.99
Buy Used: £4.53
You Save: £13.46 (75%)
New (26) Used (13) Collectible (3) from £4.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 1796
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 549
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 1405092726
EAN: 9781405092722
ASIN: 1405092726
Publication Date: April 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 An excellent Historical Novel - highly recommended October 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am often wary of Historical Novels as few modern novellists either really understand or have empathy with the past or how very differently people lived, thought, believed, spoke etc. (Remember LP Hartley - the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there ..?)
However, I am assured by other reviewers that CJ Sansom is an Historian, and it shows. Despite that the book is never wordy, dull or burdened with unnecessarily clunky historical details. It fairly races along and is extremely gripping.
I found the characters interesting, authentic and perhaps just a shade too 'politically correct' sometimes, but mostly their attitudes, words and actions seem to me to be a very accurate reflection of what life might well have been like at that time.
One character did address another as 'matey', which I would be very interested to see anywhere else in Tudor literature and there is occasional use of the 'f' word, which again, I do not know whether it was in current useage at the time.
I haven't read any of the other Shardlake series, but I certainly will do now. Very impressive writing. The author also avoids the trap of writing in a very stilted 'olde worlde' way, which guarantees a hit with me.
BTW for another excellent author who really immerses herself in the period she's writing about, try Dorothy Dunnett.
 Revelation - not as good as the previous three. October 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having read the previous three books in the Shardlake series I couldn't wait to get my hands on Revelation but I was disappointed at how slow the action was. It doesn't have the charm and tempo of the previous novels and the characters are not fully rounded. I actually left off half-way through the book and read another one before going back to Revelation and this would never have happened with any of the previous three in the series. I was so looking forward to reading another brilliant Shardlake book but this was a big let down for me. I feel that C J Sansom is just flogging a half-dead horse with this one. And one final comment, if old Master Shardlake is so perceptive and caring, why hadn't he done something sooner to alleviate the grim living conditions of Barak and his wife or hired some cheap labour to help his poor, old housekeeper? Moan over.
Brilliant, clever crime drama. October 18, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
CJ Sansom's series of books set in reformation England capture the mood, fears, sights, smells and society of the time wonderfully. Without devoting pages and pages to descriptions the reader is fully immersed in the world of main character Shardlake. The story itself is subtle, dramatic and intelligent. Reminiscent of Morse stories or those by PD James. I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of well written, intelligent crime dramas whether they're a fan of history or not.
History is the new black October 13, 2008
28 out of 31 found this review helpful
Revelation is set at the time and backdrop of when Henry VIII is trying to get Catherine Parr to be his sixth wife. In essence it is a fast paced thriller with a number of intriguing sub-plots that kind of takes a modern day subject of serial killers and murder and transposes it into a sixteenth century / Tudor world. At times the characters seem very modern but this may be intentional in bringing past and present together. I love the current trend of history based novels having just read the very passable Full Story Inside and I am currently halfway through the glorious Azincourt
C.J. Sansom - Matthew Shardlake series August 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Have read all four of the Shardlake series, all brilliant. I am now having withdrawal. Sansom has you totally engrossed, you can picture the scene, a detailed version of the violent times of Henry V111. I cannot find a single fault. Will there be anymore, please.
If you like historical whodunnits, these are for you, difficult to put down, extremely well written, who needs television.
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