Review: "Tombland," by C.J. Sansom

By Paul Carrier

In this, the seventh entry in C.J. Sansom’s series of historical novels featuring Matthew Shardlake, the well-connected but principled London lawyer reluctantly risks life and limb once again, this time during the brief reign of England’s King Edward VI.

 

While investigating a baffling Norfolk murder in 1549 on behalf of Elizabeth, the future queen, the hunchbacked Shardlake finds himself caught up in a massive popular uprising by commoners determined to rein in abuses by the nation’s wealthy and corrupt “gentlemen.”