Revelation

Starred review from November 24, 2008
In March 1543, while London buzzes about Henry VIII's campaign to win newly widowed Lady Catherine Parr for his sixth wife, hunchbacked barrister Matthew Shardlake has grimmer matters on his mind in Sansom's gripping fourth Tudor historical (after 2007's Sovereign
). Not only has his close friend and colleague Roger Elliard been savagely murdered but Shardlake finds himself assigned the incendiary case of a young religious fanatic committed to Bedlam. Learning of a link between Elliard's death and a previous slaying, one touching Lady Catherine's household, he reluctantly agrees to join the top-secret probe by his mentor, Archbishop Cranmer—instantly plunging both himself and his intrepid assistant, Jack Barak, into a maelstrom of political intrigue, spiritual strife and personal peril. With its wealth of period detail, compelling characters and bold, fast-moving plot, this may be the most rousing Shardlake adventure so far.

Narrator Steven Crossley delivers a compelling performance in this fourth mystery featuring lawyer and detective Matthew Shardlake. Despite his own doubts, listeners find him once again pursuing justice for those in trouble amid the religious upheaval of Henry VIII's reign. When Shardlake is asked by the woman he once hoped to marry to investigate the death of her husband, Crossley subtly conveys the romantic feelings the lawyer still has for her. As the dead multiply, Crossley builds the tension, narrowing listeners' focus to the perils that threaten the hero when not only is there a murderer on the loose but the government may decide to accuse him of heresy at the slightest provocation. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine