Description
England, 1543.
King Henry VIII is wooing Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies.
Matthew Shardlake, meanwhile, is working on the case of a teenage zealot detained in the Bedlam insane asylum, and whom he fears could be burned as a heretic.
But when an old friend is horrifically murdered, Shardlake determines to bring the killer to justice.
His search leads him to Cranmer and Catherine Parr – and to the dark prophecies of the Book of Revelation.
As London’s Bishop Bonner prepares a purge of Protestants, Shardlake, together with his assistant Jack Barak and physician friend Guy Malton, uncovers a series of terrible murders which soon bring talk of sorcery and demonic possession – for what else would the Tudor mind make of a serial killer…?
This is the fourth novel in C. J. Sansom’s thrilling historical series.
Continue the series with Heartstone.
‘C. J. Sansom’s books are arguably the best Tudor novels going’ – The Sunday Times
