What next after C.J Samson and S.J Parris?

[Partylots]

I’ve got a mega long commute (90 mins each way usually) and have been having a lovely time working my way through all the CJ Samson Shardlakes and SJ Parris Giordiano Bruno books on audiobook. I’ve really enjoyed the rollicking good Tudor mysteries! (And sort of fancy Bruno but not as much as Jack Barak!) but I e now finished than all and wondering if there is anything similar but also as good??

Karen Maitland series is pretty good

SG Maclean series also good

I have enjoyed all the Shardlake books but am a quarter of the way through the last one, Tombland, and am finding it the most massive slog. Way too much detail of the surroundings and nowhere near enough actual story.

I'm on the verge of giving up on it if it doesn't get a shift on!

Anyone else find this?

@TonTonMacoute, I agree. Tombland would have been all the stronger if it had 200 fewer pages. The pace just lagged too much at times. Way too much time spent describing every single tiny thing that went on in the camp. I often find though that when a writer has commercial success they seem to think they no longer need the assistance of an editor, and I suspect this is what happened here.

I still look forward to his next instalment, I just hope it's a bit tighter.

I think they'd make a great mini series though. Would love for Netflix to throw some of its big bucks at a Shardlake adaptation.

@Classica ooh yes!!! I’d love a mini series! With Mark Rylance as Shardlake! And Tom Hardy as Barak!! 😍

@TonTonMacoute yes agree. Tombland is way too long and meandering. The detail of that bloody camp!

@partylots, Mary Rylance would make make a great Shardlake although I think the fact he's played Cromwell probably rules that out. I thought maybe Toby Jones might work well. But Tom Hardy would make a great Barak! Sexy and brawny and just rough enough around the edges

Check out Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton series. 14th century Oxfordshire crime series. There's 14 books so should keep you going for a while.

Ooh following with interest enjoyed Wolf Hall trilogy accidentally found cj Samson - love it! Have a couple more to go.

Have you tried Sarah Dunant? Enjoyed her historical fiction last summer particularly Blood and Beauty about the Borgias (we were in Italy love reading books set where we travel)

Baraks a crap husband though

Just one Damned thing

What about the Chronicles of St Mary series - first one listed above. They’re good.

Oh yes please to a mini series.

I like how none of the characters are "perfect" despite honorable intentions.

The Bradecote and Catchpoll series by Sarah Hawkswood is good. 12th Century rather than Tudor era and a reasonable amount of liberty taken with the role of sheriffs and serjeants in those times but very enjoyable nonetheless. I'm four books in and hooked

I’d suggest the following:

The Queen’s Man (Sharon Penman) - the first of a four book series.

The King’s Justice (EM Powell) - the first in the Stanton and Burling series.

I've read the S W Perry Jackdaw books and liked them too.

@Classica I REALLY fancy Barak! Absolutely loads. He is a crap husband @MsTSwift but I don’t want to marry him… 😜

I love both Shardlake and Bruno, (we nearly called the pup Hermes Trismegistus!)

I second or third Phil Rickman, I was in Glastonbury last week reading Bones of Avalon ☺️, he’s a great writer.

Andrew Taylor is brilliant too.

I am going to recommend Ellis Peters, her Brother Cadfael mysteries are great.
www.fantasticfiction.com/p/ellis-peters/Cadfael
When stated work in libraries in the 70s they were in huge demand and I still enjoy them.
The dramatised versions with Philip Madoc are sometimes available on iPlayer.

@LemonRedwood ooh thanks! Intrigued by them

So many recs! Thanks so much all!

Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth series

Not crime exactly (well i guess there are elements that are, but not procedural), but try Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant Lymond Chronicles. Starts with The Game Of Kings.

@Ellmau

Not crime exactly (well i guess there are elements that are, but not procedural), but try Dorothy Dunnett's brilliant Lymond Chronicles. Starts with The Game Of Kings.

I came to this thread to suggest these! They're more court intrigue than crime, but they are great. Lymond is high on my fictional crushes list.

Can I just say, as much as I love Shardlake ( and I really do) I find it really hard to listen to on audiobook because of the weak voice they give Matthew Shardlake himself. He sounds so weak and whiny! He’s supposed to have grown up on farm so he wouldn’t be that posh, and he’s a successful lawyer so he’d need quite a commanding voice. I always imagine him to be quite stern and gruff on the outside, particularly when he’s working.

Possibly a bit leftfield but you might enjoy The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - a bed bound detective investigates whether Richard III was guilty of having the princes in the tower murdered (one of the Morse books is an homage). The BBC adaptation of I, Claudius is on Audible and I’ve enjoyed that on many a long journey! It’s a superb full-cast adaptation.