Sovereign is the third in CJ Sansom’s series featuring the ‘crookback” lawyer, Matthew Shardlake; they are mystery thrillers set in the time of Henry VIII. There is an increase in complexity (and number of pages) from the first, Dissolution, to the second, Dark Fire; Sovereign is on a level with the second, and all of them are grippingly readable.
The title refers to the king himself, who developed into a considerable monster; he has haunted these books since the start, and now, in this novel, we have a face-to-face confrontation between Shardlake and the grouchy despot. In the wake of a rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, centred on the north of England, Henry is staging a grand progress through the recalcitrant region to impress his majesty on the inhabitants, and this is where the action of Sovereign takes place. Shardlake has a legal job on hand, as well as a special commission from one of the king’s advisers (to do with a political prisoner) — and then there’s an unexpected death too. Naturally, Shardlake has to investigate.
Shardlake is an interesting protagonist, what with his issues around faith and power; because he is increasingly caught in the toils of his turbulent time, his situation is interesting too. King Henry has provoked a schism in the Christian church, dissolved the monasteries (the setting of the first novel) and there are endless intrigues emanating from the royal court and its satellite institutions, never mind the legal cases in which Shardlake is involved.
Sansom’s writing is solid, with lots of historical colour and propulsive plots. I found all the Shardlake novels unputdownable. I was amused, though, to find in Sovereign characters who say ‘Ay” and ”Tis” also speaking of a ‘private agenda” and ‘tight security”, as well as saying things like ‘We’re off the case”, as if they were in a TV cop show. These are minor issues, though; Sansom’s novels are among the best of their kind.