Sovereign - The Shardlake series (Paperback)

I have enjoyed C. J. Sansom’s series of historical novels set in Tudor England progressively more and more. Sovereign, following Dissolution and Dark Fire, is the best so far . . . Sansom has the perfect mixture of novelistic passion and historical detail - Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph

Even if heart-pounding suspense and stomach-tightening tension were all Sansom’s writing brought to the table, few would feel short-changed. Added to these gifts is a superb approximation of the crucible of fear, treachery and mistrust that was Tudor England, and a memorably blood-swollen portrait of the ogreish Henry’s inhumane kingship. A parchment-turner, and a regal one at that - Sunday Times

The best detective story I’ve read since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . . . [a] devilishly ingenious whodunit . . . Sansom’s description of the brutality of Tudor life is strong stuff, but he is a master storyteller - Guardian

[The] third volume of C. J. Sansom’s deservedly popular Tudor detective series . . . Between them, Sansom and Starkey have the sixteenth century licked - Independent

A brilliant evocation of tyranny in Tudor England - Literary Review

A fine setting for crime fiction and C. J. Sansom exploits it superbly . . . Never mind the crime: this is a terrific novel - TLS

I was enthralled by Sovereign by C. J. Sansom, a novel combining detection with a brilliant description of Henry VIII’s spectacular Progress to the North and its terrifying aftermath - P. D. James, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

Both marvellously exciting to read and a totally convincing evocation of England in the reign of Henry VIII - Spectator, Books of the Year