REVIEW: Heartstone (C.J. Sansom)

Book: Heartstone

Author: C.J. Sansom

Premise: Summer, 1545. Matthew Shardlake is asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court. He also takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace. The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne.

I'm in two minds about this book. It is chunky and so the first half felt very slow. It's set at the time when England was preparing for a French invasion. And so we get a lot of scene setting, with a lot of political talk and spells with companies of soldiers. There's also so much going on to be investigated, making the plot complex and meaning we're jumping between different mysteries.

The last 100-200 pages of the book really picked up as the mysteries start to be resolved and the action takes place. And I really enjoyed this last chunk. But am I eager to pick up the next book? Not really, I need time to recover before another chunky read!