About this item
It is 1540, and Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England, is pressed to help a friends young niece who is charged with murder. Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieveone that will ensnare him in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIIIs feared vicar-general. In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwells dangerous assignment to find a lost cache of dark fire, a legendary weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henrys disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake to save his position at court, which is rife with treasonous conspiracies.
About the Author
C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a full-time writer.Sansom is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Shardlake series, as well as Winter in Madrid and Dominion. He lives in Sussex.
