num_pages: 387
description: Exciting and elegantly written, Dissolution is an utterly compelling first novel and a riveting portrayal of Tudor England. The year is 1537, and the country is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar general, summons fellow reformer Matthew Shardlake to lead the inquiry. Shardlake and his young protégé uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason, and when two other murders are revealed, they must move quickly to prevent the killer from striking again.
language: English
title: Dissolution
titlecomplete: Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake, #1)
characters: Brother Edwig, Mark Poer, Robin Singleton, Joan Stumpe, Lawrence Goodhaps, Brother Mortimus of Kelso, Brother Gabriel of Ashford, Abbot Fabian, Master Hodges, Brother Guy of Malton, Joan Woode, Jerome Wentworth, Simon Whelplay, Matthew Shardlake, Master Bugge, Brother Athelstan, Brother Hugh, Alice Fewterer, Thomas Cromwell, Gilbert Copynger, Orphan Stonegarden, Thomas Oldknoll, Brother Jude, Ralph Spenlay
genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Tudor Period, British Literature, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Historical, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery
ratings_count: 52823
places: Scarnsea, Sussex,
series: Matthew Shardlake
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: CWA New Blood Dagger, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Waverton Good Read Award
publisher: Penguin Books