Dark Fire: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery - Softcover

Sansom, C. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143036432 ISBN 13: 9780143036432

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2005

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Winter in Madrid and Dominion comes a second riveting sixteenth-century thriller featuring hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake 

 

In 1540, during the reign of Henry VIII, Shardlake is asked to help a young girl accused of murder. She refuses to speak in her defense even when threatened with torture. But just when the case seems lost, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s feared vicar general, offers Shardlake two more weeks to prove his client’s innocence. In exchange, Shardlake must find a lost cache of "Dark Fire," a legendary weapon of mass destruction. What ensues is a page-turning adventure, filled with period detail and history.

"Atmospheric and engaging" (Margaret George), this second book in Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series delves again into the dark and superstitious world of Cromwell's England introduced in Dissolution.

About this title

About the Author:

C. J. Sansom, the internationally bestselling author of the Matthew Shardlake series and the novels Winter in Madrid and Dominion, earned a Ph.D. in history and was a lawyer before becoming a full-time writer.

From Publishers Weekly:

Matthew Shardlake, the marvelous hunchbacked 16th-century attorney who first appeared in Sansom's Dissolution, returns in this spellbinding Tudor-era tale of murder, conspiracy and betrayal. Shardlake normally handles property cases and the occasional dangerous mission for Lord Thomas Cromwell, the king's high counselor. Now he is engaged to defend a young woman accused of a curious murder, and the case seems hopeless. The girl refuses to speak and, under English law, unless she offers a plea in court she will be slowly crushed to death. Cromwell offers Shardlake a two-week stay of execution if he will agree to undertake a secret mission. Desperate to save the girl's life, Shardlake agrees. Rumors abound of a new and terrifying weapon called Greek Fire, and Cromwell orders Shardlake to find it, along with its secret formula and the two alchemists who possess it. Before Shardlake can even speak to the alchemists, they are brutally murdered, the formula and Greek Fire go missing, and horror and death are unleashed. Fortunately, Shardlake is aided by Jack Barak, a capable rogue working for Cromwell, and his old friend, Guy Malton, a peculiar apothecary. Sansom's vivid portrayal of squalid, stinking, bustling London; the city's wealth and poverty; the brutality and righteousness of religious persecution; and the complexities of English law make this a suspenseful, colorful and compelling tale.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0143036432
• ISBN 13: 9780143036432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528