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| Dissolution (Shardlake) | 
 enlarge | Author: C.j. Sansom
Creator: Anton Lesser
Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £6.95
You Save: £10.04 (59%)
New (18) from £6.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 22725
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 6
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0230529119
EAN: 9780230529113
ASIN: 0230529119
Publication Date: August 3, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Next day dispatch by Royal Mail. International delivery available. 1000's of satisfied customers! Please contact us with any queries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 66 more reviews...
 Name of the Rose it ain't November 18, 2008
Sorry, it's a murder mystery set in a monastery of grotesque monks with an ever increasing body count, a historical setting and a standard flawed detective and his questioning young side kick. But it isn't the Name of the Rose. The anachronism of the genre to the period which Eco explores so well is not appreciated here. The author has no real understanding of the Tudor period, as opposed to knowledge of the facts. Servants are not just incumberances to be shooed away when the principal characters need privacy. No Abbot or Justice would pour out drinks for their own guests, no Commissioner would pull a door bell himself. But of course ubiqitous servants don't allow a 20th Century-style detective to solve a sealed room mystery. The author does not know what he needs to look up. The Penitent Thief is not Barabbas, Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologia would not fit into a desk drawer, if indeed desks with locked drawers were a common feature of Tudor studies. And an 'amusing' reference to the Name of the Rose only serves to emphasise how inferior this. Sorry, just another Inspector Morse in tights,
 Excellent and revealing historical whodunit November 10, 2008
I discovered the 'Shardlake' series by accident and actually read the last one first .. so back I went to the beginning to see what had lead up to the end. Not that I needed to; the books are self-contained, but I was fascinated enough to want to do that.
And that's the key to this series, I think. It is fascinating. If we are not careful, history lessons teach us that Henry VIII abolished Catholicism, razed the monasteries for their wealth and the whole country shouted 'allelujah' and converted on the spot to the new religion. As CJ Sansom shows us, it wasn't like that at all. And that was part of the fascination for me. What actually did happen when Henry broke from the Catholic church? How did it affect every day life and every day people in England? The power and politics behind that momentous decision plus the knock-on effects are clearly shown in this series.
Shardlake is sent to investigate a murder in a monastery. The world of the Tudor monastery, fighting to maintain itself against (substantiated) accusations of all manner of wrong-doing, is blown apart by the murder and the subsequent investigations.
The detective story is equally as fascinating as the history, which is inserted seamlessly into the narrative.
Historical fiction writing of a very high degree indeed. I recommend it to all fans of historical fiction/detective fiction.
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR! November 5, 2008
I have tried in the past to read historical novels but found them to be, at best difficult to follow, and at worst plain dull. C J Sansom is a breath of fresh air. Dissolution engaged my attention from the first page and I was gripped until I had reached the end of the book. His use of the English language makes the novel a joy to read. His vivid description of the Tudor era allows one to live and breathe that turbulent period. And the story, with its clever twists and turns, kept me hooked right to the very end. In future I will put aside my prejudices against certain genres of fiction because I may deny myself such wonderful creations by writers like C J Sansom. I am looking forward to reading other works by this gifted author over the coming months. Highly recommended.
An updated Name of the Rose type murder mystery! October 21, 2008
Dissolution is a fine historical novel.
Sansom has certainly done his homework. You really feel like you are living the Reformation period.
It reminded me of Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose" - but is a lot more readable! It's set within a monastery where murders are taking place and it has the prospect of being closed hanging over it. There is a teeny-tiny bit of love(lust?) interest in it also.
A thoroughly enjoyable walk through history!
A new super/antihero October 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An unlikely superhero, admittedly, but Matthew Shardlake is a brilliant construction, and this book is not to be missed. Neither is the second. In fact I can't bring myself to read the (probably) final one, because I'm saving it for a week when I can concentrate solely on it! Yes, it's a bit predictable, and the sidekick can be a tad irritating, but it's just a story...not an historical treatise. Enjoy it, that's all. Please let someone make the movie...it'll be a brave man who takes the lead role, but a sure-fire Oscar!
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