Sovereign

A Matthew Shardlake Mystery

By: C. J. Sansom

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 20 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

C. J. Sansom is an international best-selling author known for riveting suspense and intricately constructed mysteries. His atmospheric prose has earned him an Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, among other accolades.

In the third novel in this riveting series, barrister Matthew Shardlake is faced with the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: his own imprisonment in the Tower of London.

Harsh autumn winds stir the English countryside as King Henry VIII, along with a thousand soldiers and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, make their way from London to York after a violent uprising. Shardlake and his loyal assistant, John Barack, have a secret mission - they must transport a dangerous conspirator back to London for interrogation.

After a local glazier is murdered, Shardlake finds that this death seems not only connected to the prisoner, but to the royal family itself. Shardlake grows more determined when he realizes that a greater threat looms over the crown.

©2007 C. J. Sansom (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"An engaging mix of history and fiction that Sansom has made his own." ( Boston Globe)

I guess you CAN have too much of a good thing

I've enjoyed this series. Reading (well, listening to) them out of sequence was not a problem, the main character is likable and the historic setting is interesting. But by the time I got to this volume, my annoyance at the initially tolerable flaws of Sansom's writing just became too great. There are the anachronisms - the diagnosis "concussion" definitely did not exist in this time period, but what's worse is the mix of contemporary slang and terms with a thin attempt at authentic language of the period. It's OK to use modern language and terminology and consider that you are "translating" your story into modern English. And it's fine to throw in some archaic language for flavor. But having your characters exclaim "Jesiu!" constantly, is just plain laziness. I honestly had begun to flinch every time I heard it, and at times that was every few seconds. No more Sansom until he expands his quasi-historic vocabulary.

Growing to like the characters

Having now listened to three of the Chaloner mysteries I’ve grow to like the main character more and more. He seems to be growing in depth and complexity with each in the series. Hats off to Sansom for that. The story is very engaging although there were a few slow parts that felt a bit like filler. Crossley is a skilled narrator and provides interesting and consistent voices for the various characters and classes.

Ugly People in Tudor Times

This book, Sovereign, is the third volume in the Matthew Shardlake mystery series by C.J. Sansom. In this novel we get our primary, but short direct look at Henry the VIII. He is repulsive. This book makes our hero, Shardlake, a demon as well. We continue to learn that Shardlake, is insightful in putting facts together, but in his own right is at least in Dante’s ninth circle himself (violence). In all these tales there are no truly good people. All come with their own evil. If this is a true depiction of 16th Century man, than as a species we are getting better – some of us prefer virtue, at least some of us.

Nevertheless, the history of those Tudor era is endlessly enjoyable to learn about and the books do give you that. This mystery takes place during the Catherine Howard marriage. In this the third novel, the plot is more complex, realistic and engrossing. The books are getting better as we travel forward in Shardlake’s life.

Another Great Book.

Would you consider the audio edition of Sovereign to be better than the print version?

yes

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes it does that indeed. They have great adventures together

What does Steven Crossley bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A reconizable voice of the charactors

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Trust between Matthew and his Side kick

Great story

Samson really does a wonderful job blending fiction with historical fact and the plot line it's excellent a must read

WOW, another great novel from CJ Sansom

The installment takes place mostly during Henry VIII's great "passage" to York in which he went, with 3000 of his courtiers and soldiers, on a tour of Northern England to impress and cow the locals.

Sansom has done a superb job recreating this world. One of the best aspects for me is Sansom's ability to reconstruct how these people thought. It is hard for us, at this distance, to understand the role of religion and the monarchy in most people's lives in 1540. Sansom gives us not only the details of this world but an insight into the emotional and philosophical life of 1540.

Henry VIII appears briefly, memorably and frighteningly; Henry's fundamental smallness is conveyed with deft skill.

It's a great mystery that is different from the first two books. Unlike so many authors, Sansom does not simply re travel worn trails.

The book is not perfect; some characters do tend towards stereotype, but even then those characters ring essentially true.

Without revealing too much, there is an appalling visit to the Tower of London that will make you most glad to be alive today and not in 1540.

The narration is superb.

It's a great listen; you will not be disappointed.

Great series!

Any additional comments?

Really good story as well as giving you an excellent feel for life in the period. Some parts were a bit gruesome, but that was life during the period. Overall, an enjoying series.

This book was the best out of the three so far

I enjoyed listening to this book much more than the first. They second was pretty good. I hope the fourth in the series is just as good as the third. The narration is excellent and the end quite a surprise.

Better and Better

The Matthew Shardlake stories get better as they go on. I liked "Dissolution" OK, and found "Dark Fire" to be better, but "Sovereign," the third in the series is better yet. I have gone on to finish all 6 of the books currently available, and I recommend the full set.

One of the great things about the Shardlake series is that C.J. Sansom not only placed the mysteries in an accurate historical millieu, but he found real characters and real stories that are almost footnotes to our history and turned them into a believable and interesting story. If you read the historical footnotes and also do some various research, you learn that some of the characters peripheral to the story (and even some who are a direct part of it) are genuine historical figures...the research that went into these books is amazing, and the writing is just compelling. Even if you took out the mystery part of the story, just the historical novel aspect is amazing. But the mysteries are also excellent...

...And Shardlake (along with Barak) is in the middle of it, along with a murder of a York glazier and several conspiracies afoot. In this case, the background of the story is Henry VIII's Royal Progress to the North of England in 1541 and a murder and conspiracy in York that drags Shardlake into the doings of the court and lands him in the worst trouble imaginable.

The narration is very good and fits just right in.

A touch longer than necessary

Where does Sovereign rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I truly enjoyed the narrator, I really enjoyed his voice and his play on the accents. Probably the second best I've heard yet.

Any additional comments?

While I genuinely enjoyed this book, I felt that there were points nearing the last several chapters where it droned on unnecessarily - akin to a book report that needs to be so many pages long and the author is just adding filler to meet that length requirement. Overall though, it was a great listen and I felt that the historical accuracies were on point. The twists the author wove into the story, the not knowing much less having any idea of the who dunnit character until literally the last chapter - it was very well written.