Tombland

By: C.J. Sansom

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 37 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the great overlooked historical detective series continues with this mystery for fans of Hilary Mantel, set in a time of great political upheaval in Tudor-era England.

Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos.

The nominal king, Edward VI, is 11 years old. His uncle, Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford, rules as Edward's regent and Protector. In the kingdom, radical Protestants are driving the old religion into extinction, while the Protector's prolonged war with Scotland has led to hyperinflation and economic collapse. Rebellion is stirring among the peasantry.

Matthew Shardlake has been working as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, the lady Elizabeth. The gruesome murder of one of Elizabeth's distant relations, rumored to be politically murdered, draws Shardlake and his companion Nicholas to the lady's summer estate, where a second murder is committed.

As the kingdom explodes into rebellion, Nicholas is imprisoned for his loyalty, and Shardlake must decide where his loyalties lie - with his kingdom, or with his lady?

©2019 C.J. Sansom (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The tale is enthralling.... Sansom describes 16th-century events in the crisply realistic style of someone watching them transpire right outside his window.... Don't believe those tapestries of pretty lords and ladies happily hunting unicorns: The Middle Ages were murder." (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review) 

"Longtime readers of this superb series will know what to expect on every level: sharply drawn characters, particularly Shardlake himself, who has grown into one of the most well-textured leading characters in the entire genre.... Tombland is the latest in what is easily one of the best ongoing mystery series currently being published." (Christian Science Monitor) 

"Gripping and engrossing.... The audio book, read by Steven Crossley, interprets Sansom's prose well. The narrative sections are low key, allowing Shardlake's voice to carry the story. In the dialogue, Crossley interprets the voices of the characters: Richard Rich speaks with a high-pitched sneer, William Cecil has low, modulated tones. Regional accents are realistically reproduced for people of different areas, for the gentry, the merchant classes the yeomen and the servant classes.... The pageantry is rich, the murder is macabre, the deaths portrayed are often brutal and violent." (Strand magazine)

Great book- download in parts

The book lives up to the other wonderful books in the series. The only issue is the missing chapter bug that occurs when it is downloaded as one part. Make sure you download it in parts so you get the entire book. Also, the last 2 HOURS are not part of the book, but are research notes and an “historical essay.”

Huge disappointment in a stellar mystery series

I have all the Shardlake Mystery Series books and have re-listened to each book at least once. When Tombland came out I was very excited and could not wait to start. Upon listening, my enthuseum dropped like a rock from a cliff. This was not really a Shardlake mystery as much as the Shardlake charactors were used to explain the enclosures of the common lands in 1549 England.
The book was 37+ hours long, but the "mystery" attention was probably less than two or three hours, the remaining 34+ hours was a history lesson about the cause and justification of the rebellions. All 34+ hours of history lesson could have been cut and the mystery could have still been solved.

Recording is missing a chapter!!

This is a fabulous story and series, and I was so thrilled to read/listen to this new novel, but tragically, when I got to chapter 68 the recording skipped and I missed a whole chapter!! The labeling is at fault here, since the file labeled "chapter 1" is actually the prologue, and then the file labeled "chapter 2" is actually chapter one, and so the numbering of the file is off by 1 from the actual chapter number, all the way up through chapter 68-so-labeled (which is actually chapter 67). Then the file labeled chapter 69 actually is the real chapter 69 - so the recording is missing a critical chapter (the real 68) which contains crucial information in the middle of the story.
There is a way to solve this by downloading the book in sections rather than as a whole (which the tech people walked me through), but that didn't stop me from getting spoilers and having a really confusing time until I figured out what had happened. This is a bug that NEEDS FIXING!! Readers, beware!

Fine Mystery, Brilliant Historical Novel

C.J. Sansom is a very good mystery writer, and Tombland is a perfect example. Hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake is sent by Lady Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth I) to inform her about a distant relative of hers, John Boleyn, who is charged with the murder of his long-missing wife, Edith. There are a lot of people who seem to wish very strongly for John Boleyn to be executed for the crime ... but Shardlake is determined to find out for sure whether Boleyn is guilty; and if not, who is.

Yet as fascinating as this story is, it is not the engine driving this book. Instead, we explore a nearly-forgotten episode in English history -- the Peasants' Rebellion in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI. Shardlake, of the gentlemanly class, is caught up in Robert Kett's "camp" near Norwich, then the second-largest city in England. Shardlake manages to live through the whole bitter experience -- but many people dear to him are killed.

Readers are also invited to care about the same people as Shardlake -- and to feel betrayed by those who prove disloyal to him. As a historical novel, Tombland transcends genre boundaries to be the best of Sansom's historical novels, and one of the best historical novels I have ever read. Yes, the mystery is very satisfyingly resolved, but it is the tragedy of the Peasants' Rebellion that will most powerfully affect readers -- or at least that was and is my response.

Even if you've never read a Matthew Shardlake novel, this is a perfectly good place to start. Sansom makes sure that we are informed of everything from the past that we need to know in order to understand this story. And once you have read this novel, you will want to go back and read all the rest.

A bit exhausting...

I have loved all of the Shardlake novels and many elements of a good Shardlake novel were here, but some serious editing and condensing should have been done, I appreciate that the author was trying to shade each event and conversation which eventually led not only of the outcome of the story but also the attitude changes of the characters, but in the end I was forced to skip through the last twelve hours or so to the conclusion. Also the conclusion of the mystery case was a bit of an afterthought after all that work of getting through the history lesson. It was like in the first twelve hours or so the author lays out the mystery case, then detours for a history lesson which ends up being twice as long as the original story. So disappointing!

Once again the incredible reading of Steven Crossley got me through about 25 hours before I gave up.

And if CJ ever reads this, I was happy to learn some more of Tudor history. Just keep it in check!

The Department of Redundancy Department

I've read the entire series. Why for the first time Mr. Sansom feels he must make the same point over and over in the most obvious way is the real mystery here. I came perilously close to putting the whole thing down on the 25th occasion that I was told of the virtues of those participating in Kett's Rebellion. To right a wrongly held historical narrative, it does not help to repeat oneself ad nauseam.

If this story were half as lengthy, it would have held me mesmerized by the vividness of the story and the historical accuracy, just like the rest of the series. An early casual reference to diners putting napkins over their shoulders had me looking up Tudor dining manners. There is a great novel here hidden inside a boring one.

Not the Usual C.J. Sansom

I've read all of the Shardlake novels and enjoyed every one. I eagerly await this one only to find I that I was immensely disappointed. I waded through the book because I hate not to finish a book once I've began, but it took an effort in willpower to keep my mind from wandering. The book went on and on and on with little of no purpose. I love historical novels, and I did learn much about the uprising. However, the knowledge was not worth the boredom in listening to 38 hours of this book.

And then I walked left to watch the paint dry...

I, too, have loved this series but found the writing very redundant this time. Matthew Shardlake goes to the same characters over and over again to ask them the same questions and gets the same answers. As far as I can tell this is a time filler so that the author can cover each event of Kett's Rebellion. The result is a fair amount of tedium without the story moving forward. The civil unrest of Edward's reign is a generally ignored area, so spending some time on the rebellion is interesting, but this bleeds over into boredom. I also question the evolution of Shardlake from gentleman lawyer to enthusiatic rebel.

A Bloated, Overlong Novel

At 880 pp., Tombland must rank at the very top of the overly long mystery novel - even Tana French and Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowland), notorious for their 500 page doorstops, must yield pride of place to this monster. Unfortunately, like so many streaming series which just have to have 10 full episodes, regardless of material to fill that time, Tombland has what must be a good 300 to 400 pages in which absolutely nothing of interest takes place, except a lengthy and largely irrelevant excursis into the obscure corners of Kett's Rebellion.

The best strategy in this excessively long novel is to read the initial 20% or so prior to the rebellion, then skim the rebellion to get to the point where Shardlake is arrested by the rebels. A key revelation occurs here which explains much, and then you can read the balance of what, without the rather poorly written and largely uninteresting account of the rebellion narrative, is a decent novel. Would that Sansom had simply put the whole narrative of the rebellion in an addendum!

I look forward to more Shardlake stories, but hope in future that we don't have to hear of every paragraph of research which the author has dug up.

Too rambling

And I want to throttle our hero for being such a putz. The story rambled on and on. Obviously well researched, it ceased entertaining me and bored me toward the end. The narrator is very good though.