RSS

Contact us

Friday 5 December 2008

Revelation

Cries and whispers

Andrew Taylor on C.J. Sansom's new book

There are other strands to the plot. Tamsin, wife of Shardlake’s clerk and ally Barak, has given birth to a stillborn son; and Barak is now behaving wildly and putting his marriage at risk. Shardlake’s current caseload includes a youth in Bedlam who has a rampant case of salvation mania and who, if released, runs the risk of being burned as a dangerous heretic. Guy is doubly vulnerable as an ex-monk of Moorish extraction, but now he’s also showing a dangerous curiosity about the heretical medical discoveries of Vesalius and the heliocentric cosmology of Copernicus. And he’s growing strangely close to Piers, his handsome new apprentice.

Revelation is head and shoulders above most historical crime novels. It’s a tribute to Sansom’s ability to plot that he not only controls his long and complex narrative but keeps the reader galloping through it, desperate to reach the climax (which does not disappoint). His knowledge of the period is another of the book’s pleasures. As he escorts us from the palace to the brothel, from Bedlam to Lincoln’s Inn, he acts as an authoritative guide to the confused political, social and religious currents of the 1540s — some of which have disturbing modern parallels.

In one sense there are no surprises: Sansom has found a formula that works and here he uses it again. Why not, when the result is as well-crafted and absorbing as this?

Andrew Taylor’s latest novel, Bleeding Heart Square, is published this month by Michael Joseph at £16.99.

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comments (1)   |  Apollo Art Books

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved