General Information
===================
 Title:                  Dissolution
 Author:                 C.J. Sansom
 Read By:                Simon Jones
 Copyright:              2007
 Audiobook Copyright:    2007
 Genre:                  Historical Mystery
 Publisher:              HighBridge Audio
 Series Name:            Shardlake
 Position in Series:     01
 Abridged:               No


 File Information

 Number of MP3s:         8
 Total Duration:         9:33:26
 Total MP3 Size:         262.54
 Parity Archive:         No
 Ripped By:              NMR
 Ripped With:            Easy CD-DA
 Encoded At:             CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
 Normalize:              None
 Noise Reduction:        None
 ID3 Tags:               Set, v1.1, v2.3

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Book Description
================
Matthew Shardlake, a keenly intelligent hunchback lawyer, is in the service of Lord Thomas Cromwell, 
an ambitious advisor to King Henry VIII. Shardlake, and many like him, sought to create a world in 
which faith and charity would be enough to settle differences. But following England's break with the 
Roman Catholic Church, Cromwell is charged with suppressing the country's monasteries and confiscating 
their land. By the winter of 1537, his actions have led to rebellion and executions. The disembodied heads 
of accused traitors line the spikes on London Bridge was a warning to others.

Harsh new laws, rigged trials, networks of informers, and Queen Anne Boleyn herself executed on questionable 
charges—the scene is set for reform and for Cromwell supporter Matthew Shardlake to enter a hellish cauldron of 
personal, social, and political upheaval. As Shardlake starts to doubt Cromwell's methods for achieving 
reform, he is sent to investigate a monastery murder that only serves to fuel his suspicions, even as his own 
loyalty comes under the microscope.

Murders on the grounds of a monastery, 16th-century intrigue, an unconventional sleuth-readers might wonder if 
this is a knock-off Name of the Rose set two centuries later, but Sansom's debut is a compelling historical 
mystery in its own right, with fewer pyrotechnics and plenty of period detail. It is 1537; the English 
Reformation is in full swing; and Lord Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's vicar-general, is busy shutting down 
papist institutions. When one of his commissioners is beheaded at a remote Benedictine monastery, Cromwell 
dispatches a second emissary, hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, to investigate the murder. What Shardlake 
and his companion, eager young Mark Poer, discover is a quietly bubbling cesspool of corruption, lust and 
avarice. The scope of the investigation quickly expands when a novice is poisoned and Shardlake finds the 
remains of a girl who served the monks in the monastery pond. Shardlake presses on by testing the alibis of the 
various corrupt monks, but Poer's objectivity is compromised when he becomes involved with the girl's successor, 
a bright, attractive woman named Alice Fewterer. As the investigation unfolds, Shardlake survives a murder 
attempt, and finally returns to London to tie his findings to higher-level intrigue. Sansom paints a vivid 
picture of the corruption that plagued England during the reign of Henry VIII, and the wry, rueful Shardlake is 
a memorable protagonist, a compassionate man committed to Cromwell's reforms, but increasingly doubtful of the 
motives of his fellow reformers. With this cunningly plotted and darkly atmospheric effort, Sansom proves 
himself to be a promising newcomer.
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