“Lamentation” by C.J. Sansom

Lamentation is part of the Matthew Shardlake series, which follows a hunchbacked lawyer in Tudor times in England as he solves mysteries and shit. It’s a mix of historical fiction and mystery, which I like. I just think that combining the two takes more effort than just one or the other, and I appreciate it. Sansom in particular weaves together fact and fiction masterfully well. He reveals what he made up in a “Historical Note” at the end, and I’m always a little surprised who was real and who was not.

In particular, this book centers around the end of Henry VIII’s reign and his wife, Catharine Parr writing a novel. It’s a religious work entitled Lamentations of a Sinner (gee I wonder where the title came from…). Since this is a religious work, the book itself also centers pretty heavily around religion in Tudor times. Religion was pretty darn serious in those days, you could get killed for saying your opinions in public and not going along with strictly what the king said to believe. This is all further complicated by the Queen’s book, which could be considered radical for these times, being stolen from her. (This theft is invented, however the book itself is real.)

So Shardlake is put on the case, as usual his assistant Barak joins him, as well as his new apprentice Nicholas. Other recurring characters like Guy aren’t around all that much. Shardlake and Guy get into a fight early on and he isn’t present all that much afterwards. However, Hugh from Heartstone (the previous novel) is mentioned often, as is the trauma from Shardlake being involved in a battle with the French. As a result, there’s a pretty good mix of old and new faces. But there are numerous times where Shardlake and Barak are described as getting older and aging, which makes me wonder how many more novels there will be in this series.

The politics present are also pretty complicated, but Sansom does a good job explaining it clearly to the reader. And they’re all so entrenched in the plot that it’s a good thing too!

Climax of this novel isn’t as dramatic as in the previous ones, which is probably why I don’t think this book stands on it’s own as well. You have to really enjoy politics and religious debates to get involved in the arguments here. It’s all explained very well, so you can get through it and understand it, it’s just not as action packed and exciting.

History or mystery fans will enjoy this one, and the rest of the series as well!