Dissolution is the first book from CJ Sansom in the Matthew Shardlake series, set during the reign of King Henry VIII and his Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell. I am a bit if a history buff and I was drawn to this story because it is set during the English Reformation, a period I was interested to learn more about. if only Catherine of Aragon had say had an accident in the bath or had a bit of loose stone masonry fall on her head?

I admit that I struggled trying to read this book years ago, such a shock to many that ripples appeared across those who follow my reviews. The author does provide some pointers to what may have happened, but the revelation of the murderer does feel a bit like a conjurer saying ‘hey presto’. Good lord, all so a king can bed a particularly crafty young lady who would settle for nothing less than the crown on her head before she ministered to the Kingly “crown”. It's 1537, the height of the English Reformation, and Thomas Cromwell, vicar general for the court of Henry VIII, is absolutely bent on the systematic ruthless dismantling of England's feudal monastery system, "re-patriating" the monastic lands and the church's accumulated wealth and destroying the evidence of papist Roman Catholicism inherent in such things as church buildings and relics.That Shardlake cannot see this part of his personality was a stretch- even with a certain amount of denial, a man of his intelligence should have been more aware.

I learned interesting details about the monastic life, most of them not showing the Catholic Church in the best of lights. He soon discovers that the monastery keeps two sets of books and the missing blue book may be the very thing he needs to find to unmask at least one of the killers. When we find out who did what and why, I found one or two of the resolutions hard to believe, and something of an anti-climax. Cromwell has carried out a thorough survey of all monasteries and religious houses, and is waiting for an opportunity to dissolve them. And with a brutal gulp, Cromwell dissolved and swallowed the monasteries across England, beginning with smaller ones in 1536 and completing the dissolution of even the largest old ones by 1540, pensioning off a few monks but turning everyone else loose into the poor neighbouring townships.Over the last year or so, whilst reading and reviewing books in other series, I have occasionally come across references to C J Sansom's Shardlake books, so thought it was time to give them a go. But there has been a murder and not just any murder, but the murder of a Cromwell representative while he was investigating the monastery for improprieties. Dissolution is not just a fascinating detective story, but a convincing portrait of a turbulent period.