On C.J. Sansom, and why his crime series, set in Tudor England, endures Premium

Explore C.J. Sansom's rich legacy of historical crime fiction featuring the idealistic lawyer Matthew Shardlake in Tudor England

When C.J. Sansom, one of Britain’s best-selling historical novelists, passed away on April 27, four days before the television adaptation of his well-known crime fiction, Dissolution, dropped, there was an outpouring of grief for the reclusive writer. Thankfully, he has left behind a rich legacy of work, which will endure.

We first meet Matthew Shardlake in Sansom’s Dissolution (2003), in which the 35-year-old lawyer is disillusioned with the direction the reform is taking. Over seven novels of increasing girth, that does not sacrifice an iota of pace or thrills, we see the idealistic Shardlake stubbornly try and make sense of his violent world where one could be killed for one’s religious beliefs as easily as for a penny.

The novels, spread over 12 years from 1537 in Dissolution to 1549 in Tombland, evoke the public and personal. The crime novel has often been held up as the perfect way to study society and the Shardlake novels do that elegantly. Shardlake, the reluctant player in the “gilded sewer pit” that is politics in Tudor England, provides a millennial perspective, which does not come across as anachronistic. There is no reason why 16th century England could not have a forward thinking person as much as say ancient Greece or Bengaluru circa 2024!

Each of the novels is set against seismic changes and show the effect of these changes on common people. Dissolution, which brings to mind Umberto Eco’s brilliant monastic murder mystery, The Name of the Rose, is set against the dissolution of the monasteries. When one of Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners is killed at a monastery in the port town of Scarnsea, he orders Shardlake to find out who the killer is. The more Shardlake uncovers, the more he learns about his patron, Cromwell, and how far he has gone from the idealism of the early days.

Dark Fire (2004) is set in 1540 and introduces many of the series regulars, including the nasty lawyer, Stephen Bealknap, and Jack Barak, Cromwell’s strong arm man. Guy Molton, the Moor from Malta, who was a monk at Scarnsea, comes to London after the dissolution. Guy starts as an apothecary and is later accepted into the physician’s guild. Like many detectives, Shardlake too is an outsider on account of his hunchback as are Barak because of his Jewish roots and Guy for his colour.

Dark Fire sees the introduction of the pattern of Shardlake working on two cases concurrently, which while not related, have a profound effect on his world view. In the book, Shardlake defends a young orphan girl, Elizabeth Wentworth, accused of drowning her cousin while Cromwell sets him the task of finding the missing formula for Greek fire. Cromwell, who is out of favour with Henry VIII for the so-called Anne of Cleves debacle, hopes the formula will find him back in the King’s good graces.

Sovereign (2006) is set in 1541 and features Shardlake’s first meeting with the King, who is revealed to have a high voice and not above petty cruelty as he taunts Shardlake for his hunchback. Set against the backdrop of the Great Progress, Shardlake is working for Bishop Cranmer, officially dealing with the petitions brought to the King while secretly ensuring the good health of a prisoner. The commission forces Shardlake to wonder at the justness of his cause as he is protecting a prisoner only so that he can withstand torture at the tower.