Dissolution (The Shardlake series, 1)

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With the fate of the Monastery at risk, everyone has something to cover up and nobody is to be believed!

He was born in 1952 and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. I love the idea that each book is numbered and limited, they're extra special because they're personalised with those sought-after signatures, and they are not on tip-in pages.

Una época especialmente interesante, llena de conspiraciones, persecuciones, luchas de poder, asesinatos y, por encima de todo eso, el grave conflicto entre católicos y protestantes, con un Cromwell convertido en el ángel exterminador de católicos y especialmente de los “depravados” monjes. Marcado por una discapacidad física ( es jorobado), bien intencionado y convencido de que la reforma de la iglesia es una necesidad para garantizar el futuro del reino, tendrá que enfrentarse a una sucesión imparable de asesinatos, que le pondrán al límite de su resistencia física y mental. Se trata de esas obras que me cuesta puntuar y que solo recomendaría para aquellos lectores de este género.

Interestingly, the author has chosen to give Shardlake a physical disability in the form of bent spine and hunched back, causing him discomfort of both the physical and mental kind. He soon discovers that the monastery keeps two sets of books and the missing blue book may be the very thing he needs to find to unmask at least one of the killers. This was a time of uneasy alliances with Catholics swearing allegiance to the new church not because they necessary believed, but because they wished to keep their property and to keep their heads attached to the rest of their bodies.Far from being in control of his immoral urges, Mortimus’ brutal punishments often land other brothers in the infirmary—or in a coffin. Currently in favour with Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister to King Henry VIII and a vehement Reformer, Shardlake receives a commission to investigate a death in the monastery of Scarnsea.

The monasteries were infamous for hoarding wealth, and Cromwell was determined to collect it to augment the royal coffers via the Court of Augmentations. Henry VIII has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers ever seen. Si a eso le añades el poder y la riqueza en propiedades y obras de arte que había acaparado la iglesia en las islas británicas durante mil años, puede entenderse la saña con que fueron disueltos, desamortizados y demolidos todos los monasterios de las islas en los territorios bajo poder de Enrique (todas las islas salvo Escocia), en el corto periodo de 6 años. The dissolution of a number of small monasteries, abbeys and priories has led to rebellion in the North of England, causing the dissolution process to be paused.

I would love to go back to it someday, as the setting in particular fascinated me, but I couldn’t connect with the writing style. He came to prominence with his series set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, whose main character is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. Clásica novela histórica de misterio que transcurre en la Inglaterra de Enrique VIII, con un protagonista que actúa como comisionado a las órdenes del vicario general del reino, Sir Thomas Cromwell, que persigue la disolución de los monasterios durante la escisión de la Iglesia Anglicana de la Iglesia Católica. Right now it is 1537 and Shardlake can offer some assurances to the abbot that the monastery can still be saved. So Shardlake and his talented, loyal off-sider Mark, a handsome young ladies’ man, set off in the wet, blustery cold of an English winter to replace the murdered commissioner.