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Book Summary and Reviews of Sovereign by C. J. Sansom

Sovereign by C. J. Sansom

Sovereign

A Matthew Shardlake Mystery

by C. J. Sansom

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  • Published:
  • Mar 2007, 592 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Autumn 1541. A plot against the throne has been uncovered, and Henry VIII has set off on a spectacular progress from London to York, along with a thousand soldiers, the cream of the nobility, and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, to quell his rebellious northern subjects. Awaiting his arrival are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak. In addition to processing petitions to the king, Shardlake’s task is to protect a dangerous conspirator until he is transported back to London for interrogation.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Despite complex court politics and several attempts on his life, Shardlake stalwartly maintains his integrity while searching for truth amid the "vipers' nest" of Henry's court." - PW

"As always, former lawyer Sansom fleshes out the detection with rich historic details presented at a stately pace. Highly intelligent entertainment." - Kirkus.

"Starred Review. Atmosphere abounds in this marvelously drawn novel, which essentially is all about conspiracies to unseat King Henry, centered on resistance to his dynasty and his Protestantism, which were both unpopular in the North." - Booklist.

This information about Sovereign was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

C. J. Sansom Author Biography

C. J. Sansom was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor (lawyer). He practiced for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, then he quit in order to work full-time as a writer. C.J. Sansom is the #1 bestselling author of the Matthew Shardlake series of historical thrillers. He died at the age of 71.

Dark Fire won the 2005 CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger and Sansom was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series.

The BBC have commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution with the actor Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. The rest of the Shardlake books are expected to follow....

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