Revelation (The Shardlake Series Book 4)

Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. Starred Review. In March , while London Book 4 of 7 in The Shardlake Series (7 Book Series).
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There have been multiple killings in previous books, but this is the first time Shardlake has found himself on the trail of a serial killer in the modern mould, one who treats killing as both a holy mission and an art form, and takes as much pleasure in teasing his pursuers as in the murders themselves. It would not be giving too much away to say that the killer is basing his murders on the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, whose apocalyptic visions have recently been opened to the common people through the king's reforms.

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I suspect a homage to David Fincher's film Se7en - the murders are every bit as imaginatively gruesome and symbolic. As with the previous books, Sansom's narrative is highly visual and Revelation will clearly make a white-knuckle film a BBC series is reportedly in development starring Kenneth Branagh. Shardlake has been dubbed 'the Tudor Morse'; like Morse, he is solitary, cerebral, occasionally flawed and driven by a belief in an ideal of justice that stands above the petty rivalries of his profession. He has the same fierce moral core, but he also has a warmth that Morse lacked, which leaves the reader feeling torn whenever a potential love interest appears; you'd like it to work out for him, but he just wouldn't be Shardlake if he ended up in cosy domestic bliss.

The other great appeal of these books, apart from the cast of regular characters, is the richness of Sansom's historical research. He has a doctorate in history and a previous career as a lawyer, but wears his considerable expertise lightly.


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He also achieves the rare alchemy of combining characters who are sympathetically modern in their psychology with a setting that is authentically historical. He leads us through 16th-century London as confidently as if he lived there himself and even without the helpful endpaper maps, the reader can immediately visualise the muddy streets, the marshes along the South Bank and the ancient City walls.


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Realistically, Sansom could have spun a novel from this theme alone, and it's a huge bonus to have two such intriguing themes running concurrently in the one novel. I particularly enjoy Sansom's style of writing, which is very evocative: We feel as if we're catching up with our old friends from the previous three novels, learning more about their lives, hopes and dreams, and finding more than a few unexpected twists in their characters, which hopefully Sansom will develop and explain in subsequent works. Finally……Matthew is in love!

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But it looks as if that'll also be developed at a later stage. Elaine twitching in impatience for novel no 5 in the series - please don't let it be long in coming!


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    Revelation (Matthew Shardlake, #4) by C.J. Sansom

    Categories Fiction Non-fiction Children's books Authors. The fourth instalment of the immensely popular Shardlake series, and yet again, CJ Sansom has written a stunningly haunting novel. Political intrigue also abounds, leading Matthew once again to become involved in complex events, the likes of which he had hoped to consign firmly to his past.