I wavered back and forth on deciding to read this book and unfortunately came out on the losing end. It is a murder/mystery which I hate but was set in Tudor era England with Thomas Cromwell as a key player in the story so I thought my love for historical fiction and the Tudor era would make a murder mystery enjoyable...I was wrong.
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom tells the story of hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake who, under Thomas Cromwell's commission, is sent to Scarnsea to investigate the murder of a fellow commissioner who went there to investigate forgery and corruption within the monastery. When word got back to Cromwell that his man had been murdered, he wanted it investigated quickly and quietly with the intention that not only would the murderer be found, but that enough evidence would be uncovered to shut down this major Benedictine house of prayer as falls in line with King Henry's latest whims in the way of reformist religion. The idea that a man of the cloth would be the murder brought all the more intensity to the search as Cromwell saw it as corruption and use it as further evidence to support closing all the houses of prayer across the English countryside. As a week came and went with nothing significant in the way of progress made, Cromwell reminds Shardlake that he has the power not only to create reputations and rankings, but the absolute power to destroy them as well. Shardlake returns with a startling revelation as to who the killer is an has to bid his time wisely in order to make an arrest of this dangerous and unlikely killer.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this story other than changing the time period and mixing in some new names and you have any other mass market murder mystery story. The investigator runs into blocks in the investigation, his life becomes endangered as he comes closer to the truth, and in the end he puts the pieces together and like magic the mystery is solved and the investigator reminisces on the danger and conflict of the situation hoping to never repeat it again. Predictable.
I do have to give Sansom major credit though for tackling a period piece. When you write about another era the writer essentially has to become a historian. They need to know the details of it all down to the minute details of costume in order for the story to be as accurate as fiction is meant to be. In this case Sansom blended historical knowledge with crime drama seamlessly. For that I do applaud his work. The story held my interest on the historical side because it portrays the turmoil of the time period alongside the drama of a fictional murder. It takes place right after the execution of Anne Boleyn and sheds light on the details of the execution while also delving into the conflict of Henry's reformation of England and disbandment of the Catholic Monasteries which is one of the most far reaching, world changing acts in recent human history.
For this book I would say if you enjoy the Patterson, Child, Flynn type of fiction then this one will fall right in line with that bringing along the history of the early 1500's. If you're like me and hate them, then will you'll probably not like this one either. This review comes completely down to a matter of personal taste and for me I just did not enjoy it.
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