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??

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Sharon Penman is an excellent writer. The Sunne in Splendour is about the Wars of the Roses and is excellent.

A one off by Sansom was Dominiom, set during WW2 basically a 'What if... Churchill never became prime minister and the Germans won the war'. Very interesting story.

@TonTonMacoute

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?

It never really picks up. Too much historical research and not enough actual story.

Used excellent twice there. I loved the Shardlake books, but haven’t managed the last one.

Another vote for Sharon Penman. Conn Iguldon is also good if you want to branch out into historical fiction set outside Britain.

Has anyone tried the John Shakespeare books by Rory Clements?
It's a while since I read them but I'm sure they were in a similar vein to the Shardlake series.

I quite like Susannah Gregory with the Thomas Challoner series.,cpser in restoration England and very compelling

Set in

Not too difficult to read but good plot twists

Oh cripes, I’ve read too many of these … maybe need to branch out from historical mysteries! Robert Harris is vg - Pompeii is excellent.

Agree that Tombland was turgid - the most recent swanston ashes of London book seems weaker too, just a bit dull!

I disagree with the pp who disliked Tombland;I loved it. I really enjoyed the detail of the camp. I didn't know anything about the rebellion and am really interested in popular uprisings eg the Peasants Revolt and in groups like the Levellers and the Diggers (in the Civil War). There's a terrible tragic inevitability in the way that ordinary people so often blamed corrupt gentry or nobles for their problems, put their faith in the monarch and were always betrayed and treated harshly.

I agree that Dominion by C. J. Sansom is a good read. Anyone who enjoys that might also like One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It's a mystery set in Stalinist Moscow.

P F Chisholm’s sir Robert Carey series about an Elizabethan courtier / soldier are really excellent and very funny too the first three just republished as Guns in the North. She also wrote three brilliant novels as Patricia Finney about Elizabethan spies starting with Firedrakes Eye

I love Shardlake. I agree that he is very badly cast in Audible. As is Barak in some of the BBC adaptations. Both are comanding men, and need to have deep, masculine voices!
I am really enjoying Lousie Penny, and her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec at the moment. Murder mysteries set in Quebec with a compelling cast of characters, great philosophical musings, and look at Quebec culture. Nicely written.

I enjoyed this series

www.goodreads.com/book/show/23787317-the-secret-world-of-christoval-alvarez

Elizabethan crime featuring a Portuguese refugee young doctor who is actually a woman . . .

Have you read Paul Doherty? He is on my TBR list after a recommendation from a friend who loves Samson, Parris etc.
www.fantasticfiction.com/d/p-c-doherty/

I'm only a hundred pages in but Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is very interesting. It's set in 1781 in London and a crime novel around slavery and abolition.

Iain Pears An Instance of the Fingerpost . He also wrote lots of detective fiction set in Italy which is not my cup of tea. Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London book 1 of his Restoration series, 4 books. I'm not keen on his other books either.

And, old but still worth it, the House trilogy by Norah Lofts who was a prolific writer under a variety of names.

Oh @Soomanybooks I love that book and the sequel!
I hope you enjoy reading the rest of it.

@RightOnTheEdge I finished it over the weekend and really enjoyed it. I've ordered the sequel from the library but there are only two copies in my state so could be a while.

@Soomanybooks in the second one it is Harry's wife who is the main character. Its really interesting to see the marriage from her point of view.
Hope you don't have to wait too long.

I haven't read the whole thread but has anyone suggested Philippa Gregory yet? Set in Plantagenet and Tudor times but from the women's viewpoint.

[quote Partylots]@TonTonMacoute yes agree. Tombland is way too long and meandering. The detail of that bloody camp![/quote]
It was a bit long but I thought the details of the camp were very interesting.