REVIEW: Sovereign (C.J. Sansom)
Author: C.J. Sansom
My rating: 3/5.
Premise: Autumn, 1541. King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to York. Already in the city are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. As well as legal work processing petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a secret mission for Archbishop Cranmer. But the murder of a York glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to a prisoner in York Castle but to the royal family itself. And when Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret documents which could threaten the Tudor throne, a chain of events unfolds that will lead to Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age.
I really like this series and was looking forward to a good Tudor murder mystery. However, I found this book to be a tad slow at times. It took a while for the mystery and investigating to start, but even then it kept coming to a halt due to Tudor politics. Unfortunately, I've read lots of historical books set during the 15th and 16th centuries, so some of the more "political" mysteries in this book weren't a mystery to me. I also found myself really nervous for Shardlake when he started to get embroiled in state secrets and musing thoughts that would've been treasonous at the time! I still love CJ Sansom's ability to keep you on your toes and doubting most of the characters - it still had me wanting to know who was behind everything! Overall, a good story, but dabbled too much in politics for me.