Brother, can you spare a corpse?

In the year 1537, King Henry VIII and his vicar general, Thomas Cromwell, are busily going about the country gaining the land and riches formerly owned by monasteries. The inhabitants of the monasteries, not surprisingly, are none too thrilled with this turn of events. That is the setting for the creepy mystery Dissolution by C.J. Sansom.

Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer who also happens to be a hunchback, is employed by Cromwell to travel to the monastery at Scarnsea to investigate a murder. Cromwell had previously sent an envoy there to investigate the monastery's finances, and that man had been murdered. Shardlake and his assistant, Mark Poer, arrive to investigate but discover that there are other dark deeds and dead bodies to contend with at the monastery.

The story is a bit confusing, with all the monks being "brother" somebody. One of the monks stutters, which helps to identify him, but there are a confusing number of them to keep straight otherwise. I listened to the audio book version, so it was sometimes difficult to remember which "brother" was speaking. The historical facts are also fascinating, and the setting, an 11th century dank and creepy monastery, adds a great deal of atmosphere to the story.

This is the first Matthew Shardlake story in what so far has been a four book series. I also read on Bookbrowse that Kenneth Branagh has been tapped to play Shardlake in the BBC version of Dissolution. So expect to hear more from the Tudor lawyer!

An aside: Speaking of Kenneth Branagh, who played Kurt Wallander in the series Wallander, author Henning Mankell has announced that he has written the final Wallander book. It will be published in Sweden in August, with the English translation surely soon to follow. I know that he said that The Pyramid would be the last novel with Kurt Wallander as the main character, but he really means it this time!

Final Verdict for Dissolution: Three Gherkins, for being an interesting historical mystery